Her Version
by mi5hao
Summary: You know how the first Percy Jackson and the Olympians series were written from Percy's perspective? Well, I've been wondering what about Annabeth? What was she thinking the whole time? How did she see things? So here this fanfic is. Rated T because I'm paranoid about that stuff. And p.s. I do plan to do this for every book. Enjoy!
1. Chapter 1

**Hi, this is mi5hao. I'm having a huge writer's block with my other PJatO fanfic, so I'm very sorry. Anyway, this idea has been rolling around my mind for a while now, so I've decided to write it out!**

 **Disclaimer: I don't own anything except the idea of this version of the series, though I seriously wish I do.**

 **P.S. It's going to be almost exactly the same (actually, I didn't just say that), but through Annabeth's point of view. Enjoy!**

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Chapter One: Introducing…Annabeth Chase!

I'm not fussy about dramatic entrances and stuff like that, so here's a brief (emphasis on the brief) introduction about me.

 **Name: Annabeth Chase**

 **Age: 12**

 **Godly parent: Athena**

 **Address: …I think it's Delphi Strawberry Service if you're a mortal. Otherwise, it's Half-Blood Hill.**

Yep, that's about it. Oh wait! I forgot something.

 **Diagnosed with: ADHD, dyslexia, and a weird craving for blueberry muffins that I'd developed after that argument with the Demeter kid this morning. Am I allowed to be suspicious of the Demeter kid?**

Yeah. Should we get on to the part about what my hobbies are, how my life is now? Well, up until a few months ago, my life had been downright boring. I mean, Camp Half-Blood is cool and really nice in every way (cough cough, not including Clarisse, cough cough), but life can get a bit plain after five years of the exact same routine every day. Wake up. Eat. Archery lesson. Then wall climbing in full lava mode for another hour. Lunch! Ancient Greek lessons. The best thing in my life was the time I got to study the architecture. So eventually, I asked Chiron whether I could get a quest, though my hopes weren't high. Oh yeah, I forgot to mention—Chiron's a centaur. Don't panic! Though if you're still reading this, you probably haven't. In case you didn't notice, I'm a half-blood. Meaning half human, half god, which explains the godly parent.

Anyways, just before the trip to the gods' winter solstice council, I asked Chiron about going on a quest—again. This time, I was going to try to persuade him instead of just plead a bit. All the way to the Big House, I calculated ways of phrasing things, analyzing all of his reaction possibilities. Yeah, a typical child of Athena. I was even thinking of ways to start the conversation when Chiron came down the porch steps and asked me:

"Wondering about when you can get a quest again?"

I jumped. "Yeah. I was thinking that—" I stopped when Chiron raised a hand.

"I had a prophecy last night. You have to wait for someone special to come to the camp," Chiron said. I stared at him. Someone special? That sounded like those Valentine cards that said You're my special someone! or something like that.

"Uh-huh."

Chiron just smiled at me real knowingly, like he knew all about my future. Then he checked the time and said: "Oh! It's time to go. The winter solstice council will begin soon." And with that, he disappeared into the Big House to get into his magical wheelchair, leaving me standing there with snowflakes landing on my shoulders looking like a complete idiot.

* * *

We arrived on the six hundredth floor of the Empire State Building. I know I know, aren't there only a hundred and three floors? Yeah, but Olympus has to be a bit higher than that, right? So naturally, it's on the six hundredth floor. The elevator opened with a pleasant _Ding!_ We all got out and headed towards the throne room, me, Luke, Clarisse and a few other year rounders. Luke's this guy with short-cropped sandy hair, a nice smile, and a scar that ran just beneath his right eye and jaw. Nineteen years old. Son of Hermes. He's like an older brother to me.

Anyway! While we were walking through Olympus, I kept thinking about how I could improve the place, and Luke had a funny look on his face, like he was contemplating how to destroy Olympus. For example, tearing it down brick by brick, or just making it go KA-BOOM! Only later did I find out that that was exactly what he wanted to do.

"Hey Luke?" I said.

Luke turned to me and grinned, though it seemed kind of forced. "What's up, Annabeth?"

"You okay?" I asked.

Luke spread his arms. "Still in one piece." He tucked a lock of my blond princess curls behind my ear and I blushed. I quickly turned away to hide my face which was beginning to feel like a overcooked tomato.

* * *

I glanced at Luke. We were in the throne room, listening to Zeus rambling about some random stuff that I wasn't really interested in. Everything was perfectly normal, except Luke. He kept looking around nervously and every time I tried to talk to him he jumped and told me not to scare him angrily. Finally, he said that he forgot something he had to do in mortal world and left the throne room quietly. Nobody noticed…expect, well, me.

After the winter solstice council, we took the Delphi Strawberry Service van home. On the way Chiron asked me where Luke was. I just said what he told me—he had other things to do in the mortal world. Chiron shrugged and Clarisse said some nasty comments about random stuff to other campers. Everything was normal…until the weather started getting weird. Thunderclouds gathered over New York City the speed of light, while the sky rumbled with the earsplitting cracks of thunder. Then lightning flashed and it started to rain. A lot of rain, just splattering down on the van. We drove through the storm back to Camp Half-Blood, even though it was impossible to see anything through the windows. Maybe Argus's eyes have weird X-ray powers, but anyway I on guard the whole time, waiting for the KA-BOOM! of the van when we crashed. It was a miracle that we made it to camp alive.

* * *

 **Erm, well, that was a bit shorter than I wanted. Though next chapter, the real fun begins!**


	2. Chapter 2

**Hi! Chapter Two! I'm so excited! Yay! Okay, I'm overreacting. Enjoy!**

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Chapter Two: "The one" arrives (finally)

Even though we got back to camp safely, I was sure something had happened. The freak weather continued day and night, which made me pretty suspicious that it wasn't just some normal freak storm. Something had happened after we left Olympus, or maybe when we were there. Something had made the gods angry…but I just couldn't think of anything logical. So naturally, I went to a lot of trouble finding out. I'm sorry, but that's just me. I can't stand not _knowing_. After a lot of careful talking and nudging, I managed to get some information out of the satyrs, though only one thing was clear—something was stolen. Something important, that had to be returned by the summer solstice.

I couldn't ask Chiron about it either, because he'd left for the mortal world after the winter holidays were over in the mortal world. Said he had some business and that he wouldn't return until summer. That did not help my mood. In fact, it only made me more grumpy. I put up with Clarisse threatening to bash my head out every three seconds. And Luke. He seemed to be pondering and calculating something every time I approached him. The freak weather continued. Even though the storms passed around camp, I could still hear the BOOM BOOM CLASH like two immensely large tambourines smashed together. New campers arrived. I got more cranky when none of them seemed to be 'the one'. Finally, when a child of Aphrodite told me "I thought you were smart" after I told her the wrong answer to "Why did the chicken cross the road?", I threw the marble bust of Athena I was making at her and well, she ended up in the infirmary for a few days due to my good aim.

Life went on. Summer came and Chiron came back a few weeks before the summer solstice. That made me considerably more happy. I mean, Chiron's like a dad to me. Either way, he also announced that Grover was coming soon, with an important package. My hopes soared—the only thing Grover could be bringing was another half-blood.

"He'll succeed," I said to Chiron reassuringly, though I felt like I was reassuring myself rather than Chiron.

Chiron just smiled. "I know he will." That night, there was another freakish thunderstorm. Actually I would like to correct myself. It was more like a hurricane, though we shouldn't have been getting hurricanes that early in the season. I had just fell asleep (as much as I could sleep with the thunder) I had a dream. I could almost hear my subconsciousness groaning "Nooooo".

First thing you should know: demigod dreams are hardly ever just dreams. We get messages from them. Sometimes, we see things from the past of our enemies and friends. We even get glimpses of the future. And let me tell you, they are _not_ pleasant. Big no no. This time though, I dreamed of something that I did not understand. At all. At first, I just was walking along the beach of Camp Half-Blood, relaxing, thinking about completely irrelevant things. Like a normal 12 year old girl. Then, things started going wrong. The sky went from sunny to hurricane mode in like bazillion miles per second. I turned on my heels in the sand to run back to my cabin and it started raining like crazy. Wind blew from all directions, making it hard to see. At least my mind was still clear. I thought: How is weather getting into the camp? Then, with raindrops pelting me (I never knew drops of water could be so scary), I ran…straight into the side of a cabin. What? I backed up in my dream and rubbed my forehead. I blinked. I was in a completely different part of Long Island, the vacation type of ocean scenery thing with cabins littering the beach. I squinted at the sign not far from where I stood and barely made out something like: Omnatuk.

I stared the sign more, until it looked more like English: Montuak. Oh! It must've been Montauk. Montauk? I frowned. Why would I appear here? I didn't have any connection to the place. Then I heard a angry roar from somewhere further. The hairs on the back of my neck stood up. There was a constant _thump thump thump_ that I was pretty sure wasn't there the moment ago. My heartbeat increased. I wondered if I could die in a dream. If so, would I die in the real world too? A figure made it's way to the cabin. I just watched, frozen to the spot, while I got soaked to my bones. I held my breath, and…

"Grover?" I gasped in surprise. But Grover ignored me. He ran (as much as he could run) to the cabin door and pounded on it. He wasn't wearing his pants or fake feet, though I didn't have much time to ponder on why. I moved and staggered over to him.

"Hey Grover!" I yelled in his ear but he ignored me completely. Okay. So I'm not actually there. Some kind of relief for me, I thought.

Grover pounded on the door and yelled desperately for whoever inside to open it. The door flew open and I saw a woman and a boy about my age inside. The boy had sea green eyes and a jet black hair. His mother, I assumed the woman was his mother, had long brown hair and brown eyes with crinkles under them that gave me the impression that she smiled a lot.

"Searching all night," Grover gasped. "What were you thinking?" The woman had a terrified look on her face, though she didn't seem to be scared of Grover.

"Percy!" she shouted over the wind, "What happened at school? What didn't you tell me?" The boy, Percy, looked at Grover then at his mom.

"O Zeu kai alloi theoi!" he yelled. "It's right behind me! Didn't you tell her?" My brain had problem getting started up. Huh? was all I could think at the moment. There was another angry bellow, and it did not sound exactly human. The mom looked at her son.

"Percy," she said, deadly calm, "Tell me now!" Percy opened his mouth to speak but right at that moment, there was a particularly loud CRACK-ing sound of the thunder and I jolted awake.

Outside there really was a thunderstorm. I hadn't dreamed that up. I thought about the confusing mess I'd just saw, and the only logical thing that I came up was: Grover and his package (meaning the demigod which was probably the guy called Percy) were in some kind of danger. I glanced around at my cabin mates. None of them had been woken up. I got out of bed quietly, eased the door open and headed to the Big House.

I sat on the porch chair. It was probably the middle of the night, but didn't exactly feel like going back to my cabin to have another confusing dream, so I just sat there. I might've even dosed off a few times, and thankfully, no dreams for me. Then, just as my eyelids were getting droopy for the eleventh time in a row, the was a loud, angry, tortured, pained bellow. It sounded exactly like the ones from my dream. Except this time it was real. And this time it came from just on top of Half-Blood Hill. I stood up, alert. I heard the sound of hooves clopping and Chiron came out too.

"No," he murmured, watching the scene on the hill.

There was the distant figure of a boy and something much larger than a normal human. As I watched, the thing charged the boy with it's head down and things coming out the side of it's head. Then I realized those were horns. Bull horns. And the way the monster charged...

"The Minotaur," I said.

"Hush, child," said Chiron. "Names have—"

"Powers, yeah I know," I snapped. It didn't mean to come out like that, but it just did. Then something else popped up in my mind.

"But if that's the Minotaur," I said, my mind working fast, "Then that guy there is totally dead." They struggled for a bit more, and I wasn't really sure what happened the whole time but there were a few more bellows from the monster. Finally, the fight ended. I was pretty sure that the guy had been shish-ke-babbed by the Minotaur, but a figure started coming down the hill while half dragging another. When he got into hearing range I could hear him crying, for his mom or something like that. The guy staggered up the steps and I almost jumped. It was the guy I'd saw in my dream, the one called Percy. And the unconscious one…it was Grover. Percy fell down and lay there. He didn't seem really hurt, but his face was streaked with dirt and dried tears. His sea green eyes were still open, though they were closing slowly.

"He's the one. He must be," I said, excited.

"Silence, Annabeth," Chiron said, "He's still conscious. Bring him inside."

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 **Dun dun dunnnnn. Yay! It's starting to match the original book. A piece of advise from me. You can read the original along with this fanfic for the matching words effect. Well, that's how I'm writing this fanfic. Use the exact same words. Anyways, hope you liked it!**

 **-mi5hao**


	3. Chapter 3

**Hi! I've noticed that this story is doing much better than my other one. Anyways, I'm here to tell you that CHAPTER THREE IS OUT! and that I'm leaving for four days (vacation *wink wink*) and that after I come back school starts, so my updating will slow down. SORRY. I'll try my best. In the meantime...enjoy!**

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Chapter Three: I get landed with a new camper (again)

I spent the next two days taking care of the new camper. News had spread immediately—the new camper had defeated the Minotaur. Every once in a while, I would go check on him, feed him some more nectar, etc. A few times, he opened his eyes. They were a startling sea green. The first time he woke up, I was spoon-feeding him nectar. When he suddenly opened his eyes, I nearly jumped ten feet into the air. He croaked "Mom?" then passed out again. I waited a few seconds before giving him the rest of the nectar and hurrying out of the room. Another time he opened his eyes slowly. It was probably the third time he'd woke up when I was around.

I waited until he seemed fully focused. "What will happen at the summer solstice?"

"What?" he croaked back. I glanced around nervously before returning my attention to him.

"What's going on? What was stolen? We've only got a few weeks!" I exclaimed. I'd hoped that he'd know something, except he just looked at me blankly.

He muttered "I'm sorry, I don't…". Someone knocked on the door. I stuffed his mouth with the nectar and went to get the door. Grover was outside. He chewed on his fingernails nervously.

"Um, is Percy here?"

I nodded and let Grover in. We went to his bedside, just to find that he'd passed out again. I shrugged apologetically at Grover. "He was just awake."

* * *

I leaned against the porch railing of the Big House. Mr. D and Chiron were having some kind of intense argument or discussion in Ancient Greek. I caught a few words, but put together they made no sense at all, so I just waited there, feeling a bit awkward, until somebody cried:

"Mr. Brunner!"

Chiron broke off in mid-sentence and turned to smile at…Percy. I resisted the urge to say "Finally done passing out?"

"Ah, Percy," Chiron said, "Now we have four for pinochle." He offered a chair to Percy on the right of Mr. D. He glanced at Percy once and sighed heavily.

"Oh, I suppose I must say it," he said. Dionysus shot a look at Chiron, which Percy didn't seem to notice. Chiron glared back.

"Welcome to Camp Half-Blood. There. Now, don't expect me to be glad to see you," Dionysus drawled.

"Uh, thanks," said Percy. He scooted a little further away from Mr. D and a small smile tugged at the edges of my lips.

"Annabeth?" Chiron called to me. I came forward and he introduced us. "This young lady nursed you back to health, Percy. Annabeth, my dear, why don't you go check on Percy's bunk? We'll be putting him in cabin eleven for now."

"Sure, Chiron," I said. I glanced at Percy. He was actually kind of good looking, though I'm never going to tell him that. Then I glanced at the Minotaur horn in his hands. It was black and white, and actually pretty cool. I was about to tell him that when I glanced at him again and saw him looking at me with a expression that I interpreted as expectation for me to say something about the horn. So instead, just to annoy him, I said, "You drool when you sleep."

Then, I sprinted off down the lawn, smirking.

* * *

I arrived at Cabin eleven and peeked inside. As usual, the cabin was crowded with undetermined campers.

"Seen Luke?" I asked one of them. He nodded toward Luke's bed. I muttered my thanks and made my way over.

"Hey," I said.

"Hey, Annabeth," he replied, grinning up at me. My face flushed and I looked down at my toes.

"Um, I just wanted to tell that you'll have a new camper. Percy Jackson," I rushed.

Luke just nodded and sighed. "Another one. He can have a spot on the ground. They just come and don't go, huh?" He grinned at me again. I smiled back and shifted my weight on my feet.

"Well, I'll just get going," I said. I turned and left the cabin.

A few minutes later, I was back at cabin eleven with a huge book on architecture. I'd decided that either way I'd have to come back here to show Percy around, so why not just wait for him here? I flipped to the page I'd stopped at last time and made my way through the lines. I'd only gotten through five pages or so when I heard the muffled sounds of hooves on grass. I looked up, seeing what I expected. Chiron and Percy stood in front of me. I looked Percy over and was suddenly aware of the wary look on his face. Am I that scary?

"Annabeth," Chiron said suddenly, "I have masters' archery class at noon. Would you take Percy from here?"

"Yes, sir," I replied.

"Cabin eleven," Chiron said to Percy, gesturing with his hands, "Make yourself at home."

The campers in cabin eleven stood and bowed.

"Well then," Chiron said, "Good luck, Percy. I'll see you at dinner." He turned and galloped away. I glanced at Percy. He was eyeing the campers carefully. I suppressed the urge to sigh deeply.

"Well?" I said, looking at him expectantly. "Go on." So naturally, he took a step forward and tripped. I wanted to face-palm myself. So much for the defeater of the Minotaur. People snickered, but nobody said anything.

"Percy Jackson, meet cabin eleven," I said.

"Regular or undetermined?" someone asked.

"Undetermined."

They groaned in unison.

"Now, now, campers." Luke stepped forward. "That's what we're here for. Welcome, Percy. You can have that spot on the floor, right over there." He pointed to a spot that in my opinion, was the size of mouse hole.

"This is Luke," I said, my face reddening a bit again. I strained to keep my face color normal in front of all the campers in the Hermes cabin. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Percy looking at me and I steeled myself. I hoped I wasn't still blushing, but the feeling was gone anyways.

"He's your counselor for now," I told him.

"For now?"

"You're undetermined," Luke explained patiently, "They don't know what cabin to put you in, so you're here. Cabin eleven takes all newcomers, all visitors. Naturally, we would. Hermes, our patron, is the god of travelers."

Percy looked at his section of floor. "How long will I be here?"

"Good question. Until you're determined."

"How long will that take?"

Everyone laughed, except for me. I don't know what was going on inside my head, but I suddenly said, "Come on. I'll show you the volleyball court."

"But I've already seen it," he protested.

"Come on!" I tugged on his wrist and pulled him outside. When we were a few feet away, my brain decided to dump a load of psycho on him.

I said, "Jackson, you have to do better than that." I had no idea where this was coming from. Maybe the frustration from the stupid way he was acting, though he didn't really seem dumb.

"What?" he said.

I rolled my eyes and muttered under my breath, "I can't believe I thought you were the one."

"What's your problem?" Percy sounded a bit angry now. I looked him in the eye and saw that his sea green eyes had a small flare in them. "All I know is, I kill some bull guy—"

My own anger flared a bit. "Don't talk like that! You know how many kids at this camp wish they'd had your chance?"

"To get killed?"

Okay, I thought. Acting dumb again?

"To fight the Minotaur!" I thought that was a bit obvious. "What do you think we train for?"

Percy shook his head at me. "Look, if the thing I fought was really the Minotaur, the same one in stories…"

"Yes."

"Then there's only one."

"Yes." I was starting to get an idea what Percy was trying to get at.

"And he died, like a gajillion years ago, right? Theseus killed him in the labyrinth. So…"

"Monsters don't die, Percy," I explained patiently. Most campers usually started off like this. "They can be killed. But they don't die."

"Oh, thanks. That clears it up." He sounded sarcastic.

"They don't have souls, like you and me. You can dispel them for a while, maybe even for a whole lifetime if you're lucky. But they are primal forces. Chiron calls them archetypes. Eventually, they reform." I looked at Percy, hoping he would get it. Sometimes people didn't understand what I was trying to tell them.

"You mean if I killed one, accidentally, with a sword—"

I understood immediately now. Grover had told me about the Kindly One business in his school.

"The Fur…" I stopped myself, then continued, "…I mean, your math teacher. That's right. She's still out there. You just made her very, very mad."

"How did you know about Mrs. Dodds?"

"You talk in your sleep." He did, but the information mostly came from Grover. I mean, how can someone tell a whole story in their sleep?

"You almost called her something. A Fury? They're Hades' torturers, right?" So maybe this guy really isn't that dumb. I looked nervously at the ground.

"You shouldn't call them by name, even here. We call them the Kindly Ones, if we have to speak of them at all," I said.

"Look, is there anything we can say without it thundering? Why do I have to stay in cabin eleven, anyway? Why is everybody so crowded together? There are plenty of empty bunks right over there." He pointed to the first few cabins, and my brain worked on how to explain. Maybe I should just lead him and let him figure it out himself.

"You don't just choose a cabin, Percy. It depends on who your parents are. Or…your parent." I stared at him, waiting.

"My mom is Sally Jackson," he said. He didn't look at me. "She works at the candy store in Grand Central Station. At least, she used to."

I glanced at the sky. He was avoiding talking about his dad. "I'm sorry about your mom, Percy," I told him. "But that's not what I mean. I'm talking about your other parent. Your dad."

"He's dead. I never knew him."

I sighed. They _always_ react like this. "Your father's not dead, Percy."

"How can you say that? You know him?"

"No, of course not."

"Then how can you say—"

"Because I know you. You wouldn't be here if you weren't one of us."

He glared at me with his sea green eyes. "You don't know anything about me."

I kinda wanted to just smile like Chiron usually did and be like "You'll see." Instead, I couldn't really hold it in.

"No?" I raised an eyebrow at him. "I bet you moved around from school to school. I bet you were kicked out of a lot of them."

"How—"

"Diagnosed with dyslexia. Probably ADHD, too." I didn't add that he probably didn't have my muffin craving.

His cheeks turned a little pink. "What does that have to do with anything?"

"Taken together, it's almost a sure sign. The letters float off the page when you read, right? That's because your mind of hardwired for ancient Greek," I said. Percy looked a little overwhelmed, but I was on the roll.

"And the ADHD—you're impulsive, can't sit still in the classroom. That's your battlefield reflexes. In a real fight, they'd keep you alive. As for the attention problems, that's because you see too much, Percy, not too little. Your senses are better than a regular mortal's. Of course the teachers want you medicated. Most of them are monsters. They don't want you seeing them for what they are." I took a deep breath after my rant.

"You sound like…you went through the same thing?" Percy said cautiously.

"Most of the kids here did. If you weren't like us, you couldn't have survived the Minotaur, much less the ambrosia and nectar."

"Ambrosia and nectar," he repeated.

"The food and drink we were giving you to make you better. The stuff would've killed a normal kid. It would've turned your blood to fire and your bones to sand and you'd be dead. Face it," I said. "You're a half-blood." I watched his reaction. His expression didn't really change, but I could see the word _half-blood_ bouncing around his head. Maybe a bit too much information to digest. I didn't ponder on it much, because just then a husky voice yelled, "Well! A newbie!"

* * *

 **I'M FEELING GREAT. I JUST LOVE WRITING THINGS.**


	4. Chapter 4

**Hey, I'm back. Sorry this update took much longer cuz I'm no longer in middle school now *cries*. Anyways, I have a lot of homework so warning: slow updates. SORRY.**

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Chapter Four: I take an unexpected toilet water shower

"Well! A newbie!" yelled a husky voice. I turned around to see Clarisse strolling towards us with three other meanies behind her. They were all wearing camouflage jackets, and I was already guessing the reason why they were here.

"Clarisse," I sighed. "Why don't you go polish your spear or something?"

"Sure, Miss Princess," Clarisse replied, smirking. "So I can run you through with it Friday night." I rolled my eyes inwardly. I really didn't need to hear that threat again.

"Erre es korakas!" I said, exasperated. It felt good to curse her in Greek. "You don't stand a chance."

"We'll pulverize you."

I sighed again, ready to make a smart comment when Clarisse shifted her gaze to Percy.

"Who's this little runt?" she said.

"Percy Jackson," I said, "meet Clarisse, Daughter of Ares." Even though I phrased the sentence like that, I was pretty sure that nobody would like to meet Clarisse for the "initiation" that was probably going to happen after. Sadly, I usually just stayed out of the way of the initiation, unless I wanted to crawl into bed and find it filled with red paint and barbed wire, then wake up to get beaten up. It's best to let the new guys figure their own way out.

Percy blinked a few times. "Like…the war god?" he said.

Clarisse sneered at him. "You got a problem with that?"

"No," he said. "It explains the bad smell."

I couldn't hold in a tiny smile. At least he had some kind of sense of humor.

Clarisse narrowed her eyes and growled at him. "We got an initiation ceremony for newbies, Prissy."

"Percy."

"Whatever. Come on, I'll show you."

I glanced at Percy and felt a pang of…something for him. Maybe I was kind of sorry for the guy, since he'd just lost his mother, and now he was about to remember the smell of you know what comes out of your large intestine for a while.

"Clarisse—" I started, acting a bit instinctively.

"Stay out of it, wise girl."

I tried to hide the pained look on my face (and failed) and I did stay out of it, because theoretically, it really was none of my business anyways. Percy glanced at me. His expression said, none of your business. I wanted to tell him that this wasn't some mortal middle school. He couldn't possibly win Clarisse in the fight he was probably expecting to earn his rep, unless he was a son of Ares, though he sure seemed a bit puny to be one. Percy handed me his minotaur horn and balled his fists, but before I could even react, Clarisse somehow got hold of Percy's collar in a whirl. She started dragging him to the bathroom. Uh-oh, I thought. Percy kicked and punched, but he was making absolutely no progress in scoring a point. It was only when she'd disappeared into the girls' bathroom with a flailing Percy, did my brain actually start to function again. I dropped the minotaur horn and ran after them.

Laughter rang out from the bathroom and a few passing satyrs cast wary looks at the cinder-block building. I managed to wave at them as I ran past, like _Hey guys! We're just having a girl party in the bathroom!_

"Like he's 'Big Three' material." Clarisse's voice echoed. "Yeah, right. Minotaur probably fell over laughing, he was so stupid looking." A few snickers followed. I stood in the corner, and I had unconsciously started watching through my fingers. Clarisse forced Percy to bend down on his knees and started pushing his head toward the toilet bowl. I didn't move or do anything to help him. Then, something happened. It turned out that he didn't need my help at all. I heard the plumbing rumble and the pipes shudder. I frowned. Suddenly, water shot out of the toilet, making an arc straight over Percy's head, and smacked Clarisse right in the face. I'm not kidding, it was a spectacular sight. Water blasted out of the toilet again, and Clarisse was sprayed so hard that she was pushed down onto her butt, then pushed back into a shower stall. Clarisse struggled and gasped, but the water stayed on her. The three other meanies started coming towards her, but then the other toilets decided to bomb them with toilet water too. They were pushed back into shower stalls and those came on too. The water seemed to turn and push them towards the door. When they were forced towards me, I realized that the water really had turned and bent to spray Clarisse and her uglies straight out of the door. The water wasn't really focused on me, but I still had an extremely unexpected smelly, cold shower.

Once the Ares girls had gone, the water shut down immediately. The entire bathroom was flooded. I stood rooted to the spot in shock, staring right at Percy. Because right where he was sitting, there was a circle of dry floor right around him. There wasn't even a drop of water on him. Absolutely nothing. He stood up slowly. My brain felt like it had been filled with water and then drained again. The gears started to turn slowly, and I said:

"How did you…" I didn't need to finish.

"I don't know."

We walked to the door. Outside, Clarisse and the other meanies were lying sprawled in the mud, and a bunch of people had gathered around to stare. Clarisse's hair was flattened across her face and she was dripping wet. Not to mention that she smelled like the human large intestine. She glared at Percy with absolute hatred.

"You are dead, new boy. You are totally dead," she spat at him. A small idea started to form in my mind.

Percy glared back. "You want to gargle with toilet water again, Clarisse? Close your mouth." Clarisse lunged at him before I could even cry out, but her friends grabbed her and held her back. Obvious anger from Clarisse, I thought. My mind starting running a thousand miles per hour. Dead boy…hatred…you are totally dead…gargle with toilet water…

I almost smiled to myself. Percy would be perfect for Capture the Flag this time.

"What?" Percy suddenly demanded. I realized that I'd been staring at him the whole time I was thinking. "What are you thinking?" he said.

"I'm thinking," I said slowly, "that I want you on my team for capture the flag."

* * *

 **Sorry about the damn shortness of this chapter, but okay whatever. I will improve next time, I swear...on the River Styx like a PJO fan (like me!) would.**

 **-mi5hao**


	5. Chapter 5

**Hi, here's chapter five. Sorry about the slowness of this update, but I got that my story sucks like hell, and that I should never write again, so I was pretty hurt because writing is the love of my life. Apologies again.**

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Chapter Five: I have no idea what I should name this chapter (for real)

News about the bathroom incident spread like wildfire. Wherever I went with Percy, campers just stared and pointed, though I wasn't sure if they were pointing to Percy or me, since I was still dripping wet and smelling like sewage. I showed Percy around a few more places, like the metal shop and arts-and-crafts room. Finally, we went back to the cabins.

I turned to Percy. "I've got training to do," I said a bit more flatly then I'd intended. Not to mention I had to change into another set of clothes.

"Annabeth, I'm sorry about the toilets."

"Whatever." was my reply. Stupid Annabeth! He obviously wants to make friends. Yeah well, another part of my brain said, doesn't everyone start off super nice and end up trying to kill me? Ahem, ahem, not including the monsters.

"It wasn't my fault," Percy said. I looked at him skeptically. Yeah, it definitely wasn't your fault. It was obviously Clarisse's, huh?

"You need to talk to the Oracle," I told him.

"Who?"

"Not who. What. The Oracle. I'll ask Chiron," I said. Percy shifted his sea green eyes and stared into the lake. Two naiads sat at the bottom and smiled and waved at Percy. He waved back dumbly.

"Don't encourage them," I said warningly, "Naiads are terrible flirts."

"Naiads." There was a pause. Then he said, "That's it. I want to go home now."

I frowned a bit. "Don't you get it, Percy? You are home. This is the only safe place on earth for kids like us." Even though I said that, there was a small nagging voice at the back of my mind. _You don't really know, Annabeth,_ it said. _You've never had a family. Friendless._ Shut up, I told it. I had a family. Thalia and Luke. I pushed away those thoughts.

"You mean, mentally disturbed kids?" That had to be acting dumb. Or avoiding the point, I thought.

"I mean not human. Not totally human, anyway. Half-human."

"Half-human and half-what?"

I studied him. He wasn't meeting my eyes. "I think you know," I said quietly.

"God," he finally said after a while. "Half-god."

I nodded proudly like a mom after her toddler learned how to spell dog. "Your father isn't dead, Percy. He's one of the Olympians."

"That's…crazy."

"Is it?" What's the most common thing gods did in the old stories? They ran around falling in love with humans and having kids with them. Do you think they've changed their habits in the last few millennia?" I asked him.

"But those are just—" he paused. "But if all the kids here are half-gods—"

"Demigods," I interrupted. "That's the official term. Or half-bloods."

"Then who's your dad?"

I tensed up a bit instinctively. I gripped the pier railing a bit tighter, then tried to relax. "My dad is a professor at West Point. I haven't seen him since I was very small. He teaches American history," I said tightly.

"He's human."

"What?" I said, "You assume it has to be a male god who finds a human female attractive? How sexist is that?"

Percy seemed to think about that for a second. "Who's your mom, then?"

"Cabin six," I replied gladly, happy to get away from the topic of my dad.

"Meaning?"

"Athena. Goddess of wisdom and battle."

"And my dad?" Percy sounded a bit hopeful and he rounded on me with big green eyes.

I looked away. "Undetermined, like I told you before. Nobody knows."

"Except my mother. She knew."

I didn't know how to phrase what I was going to say next. He sounded so sure about his mom and dad, it felt sad. "Maybe not, Percy," I said simply. "Gods don't always reveal their identities."

"My dad would have. He loved her." Percy's voice said: Shut up and leave me alone.

So I told him, just to make him happier, "Maybe you're right. Maybe he'll send a sign. That's the only way to know for sure: your father has to send you a sign claiming you as his son. Sometimes it happens."

"You mean sometimes it doesn't?"

Damn Annabeth, I scolded myself mentally. You just had to pop his happy bubble. So understanding of you. I ran my hand along the rail.

"The gods are busy. They have a lot of kids and they don't always…" I trailed off. "Well, sometimes they don't care about us, Percy. They ignore us."

Percy looked down. "So I'm stuck here? That's it? For the rest of my life?"

"It depends," I explained a bit impatiently. "Some campers only stay the summer. If you're a child of Aphrodite or Demeter, you're probably not a real powerful force. The monsters might ignore you, so you can get by with a few months of summer training and live in the mortal world the rest of the year. But for some of us, it's too dangerous to leave. We're year-rounders. In the mortal world, we attract monsters. They sense us. They come to challenge us. Most of the time, they'll ignore us until we're old enough to cause trouble—about ten or eleven years old, but after that, most demigods either make their way here, or they get killed off. A few manage to survive in the outside world and become famous. Believe me, if I told you the names, you'd know them. Some don't even realize they're demigods. But very, very few are like that."

I swallowed. All this explaining was making my throat dry.

"So monsters can't get in here?" Percy asked.

I shook my head. "Not unless they're intentionally stocked in the woods or specially summoned by somebody on the inside."

"Why would anybody want to summon a monster?"

"Practice fights," I answered, "Practical jokes."

Percy stared at me incredulously. "Practical jokes?"

"The point is," I said, my patience finally running out, "the borders are sealed to keep mortals and monsters out. From the outside, mortals look into the valley and see nothing unusual, just a strawberry farm."

"So…" Percy said, "You're a year-rounder?"

I nodded and pulled out my camp necklace. "I've been here since I was seven," I told him. Memories started to flash through my mind—Luke, Thalia and I running through the woods, the day Grover found us, the day Luke and Thalia found me, and the day we became a family.

I took a deep breath and tried to push away those memories. "Every August," I said, "On the last day of summer session, you get a bead for surviving another year. I've been here longer than most of the counselors, and they're all in college."

"Why did you come so young?" Percy asked curiously. The memories of my dad flashed through my mind vigorously. I twisted dad's college ring and my jaw tightened then relaxed. "None of your business," I said.

"Oh."

We stood there for a minute or so in awkward silence. "So…I could just walk out of here right now if I wanted to?" said Percy.

I gave him a sideways glance. "It would be suicide, but you could, with Mr. D's or Chiron's permission. But they wouldn't give permission until the end of the summer session unless…"

"Unless?"

"You were granted a quest. But that hardly ever happens. The last time…" I trailed off. I remembered Luke's quest to the Hesperides garden. I remembered how he had looked when they told him "Too bad man". Gods, that expression…was just horrifying. He had looked so angry, like his expression at the moment _defined_ the word anger.

Percy's eyes roamed over the landscape. They lingered for a moment on the Big House, his eyes a beautiful sparkling green color. Wait! I didn't just say that. I did not just say that about this random newbie. Ignore me please. Just ignore me.

"Back in the sick room," Percy started. I jerked back to reality. "When you were feeding me that stuff—"

"Ambrosia."

"Yeah. You asked me something about the summer solstice."

I perked up. "So you do know something?" Maybe I was a bit too hopeful, but that's what I'm like after not knowing for so long.

"Well…no." Too bad Annabeth, said my brain. "Back at my old school, I overheard Grover and Chiron talking about it. Grover mentioned the summer solstice. He said something like we didn't have much time, because of the deadline. What did that mean?"

My fists clenched subconsciously. "I wish I knew," I said. Percy glanced at me questioningly. Maybe I sounded a bit too bitter. "Chiron and the satyrs, they know," I continued, "but they won't tell me. Something is wrong in Olympus, something pretty major. Last time I was there, everything seemed so normal."

"You've been to Olympus?" said Percy incredulously.

"Some of us year-rounders—Luke" my heart skipped a beat "and Clarisse and I and a few others—we took a field trip during winter solstice. That's when the gods have their big annual council."

"But…how did you get there?"

"The Long Island Railroad, of course. You get off at Penn Station. Empire State Building, special elevator to the six hundredth floor." Percy started looked confused, which made me confused.

"You are a New Yorker, right?" I asked him.

"Oh, sure," he replied, but his expression said _What the heck are you going on about._

"Right after we visited, the weather got weird, as if the gods had started fighting," I told him. "A couple of times since, I've overheard satyrs talking. The best I can figure out is that something important was stolen. And if it isn't returned by the summer solstice, there's going to be trouble. When you came, I was hoping…" I corrected myself hastily "I mean—Athena can get along with just about anybody, except for Ares. And of course she's got the rivalry with Poseidon. But, I mean, aside from that, I thought we could work together. I thought you might know something." I glanced at Percy again. He couldn't be Ares, or Poseidon because well, Poseidon's one of the Big Three. And they had that pact about children. So, I could get along with him, I thought. Yeah.

Percy shook his head tiredly. I gritted my teeth. "I've got to get a quest," I muttered angrily under my breath so Percy wouldn't hear. "I'm not too young. If they would just tell me the problem…" My voice rose even in this muttering state. I glanced at Percy. He was looking away. Barbecue smoke wafted out and my stomach growled, but at the same time so did Percy's, so it sounded like his stomach was extra loud.

"Catch you later," I told him. He nodded and left. I bit my lip and turned away, tracing my finger on the rail absentmindedly. Then my stomach growled again and my brain got angry along with it. It yelled "Hey! Go satisfy your damn stomach!". I sighed and headed back to my own cabin.

* * *

"Cabin six! Head out!" I yelled. We headed out to the dining pavilion and sat down at the table. Finally, Chiron pounded his hoof against the marble floor of the pavilion, and everybody fell silent. Chiron raised his glass. "To the gods!"

I raised my glass along with everyone else. "To the gods!" The nymphs came forward with platters of food. I got up and headed towards the fire. When it got to my turn to give my offering, I scraped off a part of my barbecue and prayed to my mom about…well, about the omen that was supposed to come my way for my first quest.

When everyone had finished their meals, Chiron pounded his hoof again to get our attention. He looked at Mr. D expectantly. Finally, he rolled his eyes lazily and got up with a huge sigh. "Yes, I suppose I'd better say hello to all you brats. Well, hello. Our activities director, Chiron, says the next capture the flag is Friday. Cabin five presently holds the laurels." The kids from the Ares table cheered.

Mr. D looked at us and hurriedly continued like he had to make sure we thought he didn't care at all. "Personally, I couldn't care less, but congratulations. Also, I should tell you that we have a new camper today. Peter Johnson." Chiron shot him a look and murmured something.

"Er, Percy Jackson," Mr. D corrected. "That's right. Hurrah, and all that. Now run along to your silly campfire. Go on." We all cheered and ran to our sing-along.

* * *

 **Hope you enjoyed. I've decided that I'll write whatever I want, and nobody has the right to tell me not to. And sorry if Annabeth is a little OOC. -mi5hao**


	6. Chapter 6

**Hello! Thanks to FestusLives (Guest) for reviewing, though it didn't show up on the reviews in Fanfiction, but I got an email alert! Thank you so much, I have regained my confidence in this story now. Chapter Six!**

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Chapter six: Capture the flag

The following morning I taught Percy Ancient Greek. And the following morning. And the following morning. We talked about gods and goddesses together. It was actually pretty fun. I had my own activities, but a lot of the time, I was just watching Percy, trying to get an idea of his dad. There was one problem though. I just couldn't figure it out. I just couldn't. Being a daughter of Athena, it wasn't supposed to be so hard. I mean, look at Clarisse. Big, check. Ugly, check. Mean, check. Bloodthirsty, check. A hundred percent on the Are You A Daughter of Ares? test. But Percy…he was the hardest problem of my life. Actually, he's not. That's just an exaggeration. It was just so confusing. I'd watch him do his activities, and strangely, the only thing he was really good at was canoeing.

On Thursday, three days after Percy arrived, he had his first sword-fighting lesson. Okay, you might think that I'm a stalker. But when agent Annabeth gets a hard problem to solve, that's exactly what she does. So, live with it. Yeah. Anyways, I…sort of watched the session. Percy wasn't doing very well, to be frank, being paired with Luke. They had a break in the middle and I watched as Luke poured water on his head. He must've been really hot. Hey, I meant, really sweaty.

"Hey Annabeth," greeted one of the Hermes guys. I think his name was Ethan, but I wasn't really sure.

"Hi. Ethan, right?" I asked.

"Yeah." There was a pause and Ethan returned to the training. There was a loud splashing sound and I turned to see Percy pouring his water on his head too. Then he blinked once and shook his hair. Percy picked up his sword again and turned it over, looking at it strangely like it just grew wings.

"Okay, everybody circle up!" Luke ordered. "If Percy doesn't mind, I want to give you a little demo." I backed away into a corner and sat down. I thought about Percy's godly parent. If…if he wasn't a son of Ares, Apollo, Dionysus, Hephaestus…then, I thought, he had to be a child of the Big Three. He must be a son of Zeus, I thought. Or Hades. As long as it isn't Poseidon, I'm okay. I watched Luke demonstrate a disarming technique in slow-mo, and told the watching Hermes guys that he and Percy would be sparring until someone does it.

"Ready, Percy?" he asked. Percy nodded. They started sparring, but there was something different this time. Percy didn't seem so awkward and slow. He countered Luke's attacks and even tried a thrust. Then, something unexpected happened. Percy's blade hit the base of Luke's, twisted and forced Luke to drop his sword. The perfect disarming maneuver. I sat up straighter, trying to figure out what just happened.

There was a long pause. Then, Percy said, "Um, sorry." Another pause.

"Sorry?" Luke exclaimed, grinning, "By the gods, Percy, why are you sorry? Show me that again!" They started sparring again, but this time there was no contest at all. Luke sent Percy's sword skidding across the floor one second after their swords connected. I slipped out of the arena quietly, my shoes making a muffled sound against the grass. My mind worked furiously, thinking about what just happened. By now I was pretty sure that we'd landed with another child of the Big Three. But which one? I passed Grover on the riverbank, who was staring at the naiads in the water. I stopped.

"Grover." No response.

"Grover!" I waved my hand in front of his face and he blinked then jumped.

"Oh uh, hey Annabeth," he said hurriedly.

I sat down next to him and studied his face. "Something on your mind?"

"Nah, it's nothing." But it clearly wasn't just "nothing". I could tell by the way Grover fiddled with his shirt, twisting it into a knot and biting on his lip.

"It's Dionysus, isn't it," I said. Grover shifted his gaze from the river to me.

"How'd you know?" he asked.

I straightened up. "I'm a daughter of Athena."

Grover sighed. "Basket-weaving must be a nice skill," he mumbled at the naiads. "My career's over, isn't it."

"You can't be sure of that," I reassured him. "There's still a chance, right?"

"Maybe…" Grover trailed off. I stayed with him for a little longer and then headed off to my own activities.

* * *

That night after dinner, people were more excited than usual. It was time for capture the flag. I rushed off to my cabin with Malcolm right after dinner and retrieved the flag. It was woven with silvery gray silk with an owl in the middle. It was beautiful.

"We're gonna win," I said to Malcolm. He raised his eyebrows.

"I got a plan," I told him. Before capture the flag, I'd worked pretty hard to get Luke and his cabin on my team, mainly because the center point of my plan was in that cabin.

We waited until the conch horn sounded and campers yelled and cheered as I ran in with the banner. Chiron announced the teams and the rules. I weaved through the crowd and found Luke. I told him the plan. He nodded and glanced at Percy on his other side with a sly smile. Chiron waved his hands and the tables were suddenly covered with fighting equipment. I picked up a helmet that seemed to be the right size and put it on, though I was pretty sure that the moment the fighting started I was going to ditch it. I put on the armor and made sure that my invisibility Yankees cap was tucked safely in my pocket. I picked up a random sword and tested it. It wasn't balanced, but that didn't really matter considering I fought with my knife.

I thrusted my sword into the air and yelled, "Blue team, forward!" Everyone on the blue team cheered and we headed down into the woods with the red team yelling taunts at our backs. I marched at the front and heard a clanging noise. Then Percy appeared next to me in full armor, which I had to resist laughing at. I kept marching.

"Hey," he huffed. "So, what's the plan? Got any magic items you can loan me?" My hand drifted towards my pocket, wondering if Percy really is a son of Hermes, which would mean that my cap should be gone by now. It was still there, so I kept marching forward.

"Just watch Clarisse's spear," I said, distracted. "You don't want that thing touching you. Otherwise, don't worry. We'll take the banner from Ares tonight. Has Luke given you your job yet?"

"Border patrol, whatever that means," Percy replied. For a second I felt tempted to answer "it means you'll be pulverized by Clarisse", but instead I said, "It's easy. Stand by the creek, keep the reds away. Leave the rest to me. Athena always has a plan." I pushed on ahead, leaving Percy behind. I know it's harsh, but that's what I did.

* * *

I stationed Percy next to the creek and scattered into the trees with everybody else.

"Hey Lee," I greeted Lee Fletcher, head of Apollo cabin. "Can you lead a main raid in the center?"

Lee grinned. "Sure, Annabeth." He shouldered his bow and ran off to his cabin mates. Luke, of course, knew what he was supposed to do. I stood around for a while, and when no one was looking, I dropped my helmet and whipped on my Yankees cap. Somewhere far, the conch horn sounded and the Apollo kids with some Hermes guys charged past the trees, yelling their battle cries. I ran after them into the battlefield and weaved through the fighting demigods, bashing a few helmets along the way. In the middle of the chaos, where people would have no idea who's saying what, I yelled at the top of my lungs, "Hey Clarisse! I've found the little punk! He's by the creek!" I saw this Ares camper detach himself from the fight and race off, no doubt going to tell Clarisse where Percy was. Then hopefully, Clarisse would leave the fight with some buddies and go beat him up, leaving Luke free to get the flag, just like my plan. Which would mean that Percy would be in big trouble. Realizing that, I made my way back to the creek as fast as I could go, only to find him surrounded by five Ares campers, Clarisse among them. I pulled out my knife and ran at them as Clarisse thrusted her spear at Percy. He blocked it, but staggered backwards, no doubt electrified by the spear. I cursed under my breath. I was a long way from where they were. Another Ares guy slammed Percy in the chest, and he fell.

The Ares campers erupted into laughter. I was in hearing range now but stupid thorns were blocking the way and I was hacking through them as fast as I could. I heard Clarisse say, "Give him a haircut. Grab his hair." Percy managed to get up and deflect her spear with his sword, but she just slammed it out of his hand.

"Oh, wow," Clarisse said. "I'm scared of this guy. Really scared."

"The flag is that way," Percy told her. He sounded pretty scared to be honest. "Yeah," one of her siblings said. "But see, we don't care about the flag. We care about a guy who made our cabin look stupid." "You do that without my help," Percy told them. I figured it probably wasn't the smartest thing to say.

Two of them charged at Percy. He backed up toward the creek, tried to raise his shield, but Clarisse was too fast. I cursed again and hacked more furiously at the thorns. Clarisse's spear struck him straight in the ribs. One of her cabin mates slashed his sword across Percy's arm, leaving a good-size cut.

"No maiming," he managed to say.

"Oops," the guy said. "Guess I lost my dessert privilege."

He pushed Percy into the creek and he landed with a big _sploosh!_ They all laughed. The thorns I was hacking at finally gave away and I rushed at Percy.

Clarisse and her cabin mates came into the creek to get him, but amazingly, Percy stood to meet them. He swung the flat of his sword against the first guy's head and knocked his helmet clean off. I stopped in my tracks in surprise and the guy crumpled into the water.

The other two charged at Percy. He slammed one in the face with his shield and used his sword to shear off the other guy's horsehair plume. Both of them backed up quick. The last guy didn't look really anxious to attack, but Clarisse kept coming, the point of her spear crackling with energy. As soon as she thrust, Percy caught the shaft between the edge of his shield and his sword, and it snapped like a twig.

"Ah!" she screamed. "You idiot! You corpse-breath worm!" Percy slammed her between the eyes and she stumbled backwards. Elated screaming filled the air and I turned to see Luke racing back with the red banner with a couple of Hermes and Apollo guys flanking him and fighting off Hephaestus's kids. He thundered over the border line and our side erupted in cheers. I smiled. My plan'd worked. The red banner shimmered and turned silver. Chiron blew the conch horn, signaling the end of the game. We'd won. I turned back to Percy. I guess I felt sort of guilty, since I set him up, so I stepped into the creek beside him and said, "Not bad, hero."

"Where the heck did you learn to fight like that?" I asked, taking over my cap so he could see me.

Percy's eyes blazed with anger. "You set me up," he said angrily. "You put me here because you knew Clarisse would come after me, while you sent Luke around the flank. You had it all figured out." I shrugged. It was his fault in the first place for making Clarisse hate him. "I told you," I said. "Athena always, always has a plan."

"A plan to get me pulverized."

I ignored that. "I came as fast as I could," I said apologetically, "I was about to jump in, but…You didn't need help." I gripped my knife awkwardly and sheathed it again. In the corner of my eye, I saw something on his arm. I glanced at it and bit back a gasp. Where I was pretty sure had a large sword cut, there was just a long red scab which was healing by the minute.

"How did you do that?" I asked.

"Sword cut. What do you think?"

"No. It was a sword cut. Look at it," I said. The scab turned into a long white scratch when Percy looked down, then faded into a small scar and disappeared.

"I—I don't get it," said Percy. I started thinking hard. The bathroom incident, how he'd made the water shoot out, the water splashing in the arena which had given him a sudden amount of energy, the cut healing…he's standing in the water right now, I realized as I glanced down at his feet. I looked at Clarisse's now broken spear. That sudden rush of energy he'd gotten after he fell into the creek...gods, no.

"Step out of the water, Percy."

"What—"

"Just do it."

* * *

 **Yay! Sort of a cliffie, lol. Updating next chapter soon. -mi5hao**


	7. Chapter 7

**Hello! Sorry I went on a trip for a week but I didn't tell you guys, so I didn't update, but either way I'm here now with a new chapter! :D Enjoy, my friends!**

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Chapter seven: The start of my first quest

Percy stepped out of the water and almost fell over. I grabbed him by his shoulders and steadied him, all the while cursing.

"Oh, Styx," I muttered. "This is not good. I didn't want…I assumed it would be Zeus…" I glanced at Percy again when I heard this low canine growl. A howl ripped through the forest, making the hairs on the back of my neck stand up. Everyone quieted down. I spun around and saw a hellhound the size of a rhino with lava red eyes…and it was glaring right at Percy. I drew my sword, but it felt extremely unbalanced, and truth be told it was only for show when I led the blue team down the slope. I heard Chiron yell, "Έτοιμο! Τόξο μου!" which is Ancient Greek for "Stand ready! My bow!"

"Percy, run!" I yelled. I saw the muscles under the hellhound's fur ripple and I knew it was going to pounce at Percy. And if it did, he'd be dead meat. So naturally, I did something stupid. I tried to step in front of him. I have no idea what I was thinking then, maybe I thought it'd be more important for him to survive, being a child of the Big Three. But even so, the hellhound was too fast. It soared straight over me and I heard a growl and shuffling sounds followed by a cascade of _thwack, thwack, thwack,_ and then a loud _thump!_ I didn't want to turn around and see. He was probably dead. My heart hammered in my chest and I turned around slowly. By some miracle, Percy was still alive, though his armor was ripped pretty badly and there was blood on his chest. The hellhound had a cluster of arrows stuck in it's neck, lying dead on the ground. Thank the gods, I thought. Wait no. Thank Chiron's shooting skills.

Chiron trotted to us, his expression looking like someone just died.

"Di immortales!" I said breathlessly, "That's a hellhound from the Fields of Punishment. They don't…they're not supposed to…"

"Someone summoned it," Chiron said. "Someone inside the camp." I came to the same conclusion right before he said it.

"It's all Percy's fault! Percy summoned it!" Clarisse yelled like a little kid.

"Be quiet, child," Chiron told her. Everyone watched in silence as the body of the hellhound melt into shadow, soaking into the ground and disappearing. I turned my attention back to Chiron. Now would be the best time to tell Chiron about my suspicions about Percy's father.

"You're wounded," I said to Percy, "Quick, Percy, get in the water."

"I'm okay." Uh-huh. Like hell you are.

"No, you're not," I argued. "Chiron, watch this." Percy shrugged absently and stepped back into the water. Everyone gathered around to watch. Percy's skin color improved like he'd just had a double expresso. I could see the blood disappearing and underneath the skin was repairing. Then, it happened. A hologram of a trident appeared right above his head. No, I thought. Did it have to be a child of Poseidon? Campers gasped as it appeared.

"Look, I—I don't know why," he said apologetically, "I'm sorry…" But nobody was listening. They were all staring right at the symbol.

"Percy," I said, pointing at it, "Um…" Percy looked up, but it was already fading.

"Your father," I murmured, "This is really not good."

"It is determined," Chiron announced. People starting kneeling down before the Son of the Sea God, so I did the same.

"My father?"

"Poseidon," said Chiron, "Earthshaker, Stormbringer, Father of Horses. Hail, Perseus Jackson, Son of the Sea God."

The next day, Chiron moved Percy to Cabin 3. People whispered about the hellhound attack. They steered clear of Percy. I think they were scared, but it only annoyed me because seriously, it's just unfair to blot Percy out because you're scared. I kept thinking about the meaning of his parentage. I mean, sure he's something special, but it's more like the bad kind of special rather than the good. Gods, just why did he have to be a son of Poseidon? Seriously, why not Zeus? He's a nice guy, sure, and we were getting along pretty well (at least I think so) and suddenly BOOM! Gah, why am I so fussy about this? He doesn't mean to much to me…I guess.

I taught him Greek every morning, but every time I thought about getting a quest. It would mean going on a quest with Percy. I kept muttering to myself under my breath so Percy couldn't hear, voicing my thoughts, "Quest…Poseidon?…Dirty rotten…got to make a plan…" Four nights after the hellhound attack, I saw someone drop a something on Percy's front step when he wasn't there. I ran forward to see who it was, but they sprinted away before I could. I turned to the dropped object instead. It was a mortal newspaper, turned to the Metro page. I couldn't make out the title because of the dark and my dyslexia, so I just left it there and went back to my cabin. I waited until nine o'clock and decided that I was too bored to do anything.

So I called, "Lights out." That night, I had a nightmare. I was standing at the edge of a huge hole. It was icy cold and the air felt like it was sucking me into the hole. It felt evil. I felt like I shouldn't be here. I dug my heels into the weird granite-like dirt while my heart starting pounding against my ribcage.

A voice chuckled suddenly. The hairs on the back of my neck stood up straight and I couldn't move. I couldn't breathe. The voice was coming from the bottomless pit, or at least I couldn't see the end, and the voice was so deep and evil that it turned my blood to ice.

"You really think your special omen has come," it mused. It laughed again and made a sound like sucking in breath. I moved one foot back away from the pit slowly. Suddenly, I was jerked forward. Gravity seemed to change direction and I realized that I was really being sucked into the hole. My feet were dragged first and I fell down hard on my butt. My hands scrabbled at the ground uselessly. Now I could see that it was actually made of hard, black glass chips. I opened my mouth to scream but no sound came out. The force sucked harder and I was dragged into the pit. I screamed out loud.

BONK! My eyes flew open and I looked around frantically.

"Wuzzrong?" Malcolm muttered groggily. There was a sigh then the sound of snoring again.

I was still in cabin six, but I was sure that I'd been pulled into that pit by that thing. I groped around for my clock and found it. I squinted at it. 3:32 am. The top of my head throbbed painfully and I realized that I had banged my head when I screamed and woke myself up, which explains the BONK sound. I took a deep breath, got dressed and headed for the Big House, like I always did when I had a nightmare (I know, scaredy cat Annabeth, but that's just me).

I yawned tiredly when I was right outside the Big House, thought about going back to sleep, then decided against it. I was about to go in when I heard arguing voices.

"…has to go. Mr. D?" That was Chiron's voice.

"Personally, I wouldn't mind the little brat blowing himself up, but I suppose you want me to give a reason as to why he shouldn't be given a stupid quest," Dionysus replied. My ears felt like they were finally clean and able to hear clearly. A quest! Surely that person would need companions.

"Percy needs to deliver the lightning bolt back to Zeus, or there'll be war," Chiron said gravely. Percy? My skin tingled at his name. Seriously? Him?

"Isn't there another way?" That was Grover.

"I don't think so. Zeus believes that he has found his thief and wants the bolt to be delivered back. Percy'll need to go on a quest, and he'll need two companions. Maybe we could ask Annabeth since she—"

I didn't hear what Chiron said next, because at that moment I swung the door open and hopped inside.

"I'm ready," I said. Grover jumped about a foot into the air and choked on the ping-pong ball he was munching on.

"Can you not scare us like that, Annabelle?" Dionysus said.

"Sorry," I said, "and my name is Annabeth."

"Do you understand what you're volunteering for?" Chiron asked me. I nodded. Chiron shook his head at me. "No, you don't," he said. I sat down in a chair.

"Well, I suppose you could explain it to me," I suggested.

"Zeus and Poseidon, they're fighting over his lightning bolt. Remember when we left Olympus and the weird storm?" Chiron said. He explained the whole situation to me, and his suspicions.

"Is that clear? Are you sure you want to go?" he asked after taking a deep breath from all the explaining.

I nodded, though a part of my brain said "This is insane! Why are you doing this for Percy?" I'm not volunteering for Percy, I told it. But another part of me said, come on, face yourself. You have something for him, don't you. I dug my nails into my palms and tried to push all my thoughts away. Nothing. I don't have _anything_ for him.

Denial! the part of my brain shouted happily at me. Denial is the first sign of Percy fever! Percy fever? I frantically shook my head. What the heck is that?

I didn't dwell on my feelings for Percy much, because then Chiron said, "Annabeth? Annabeth? Hello? Are you still with us?"

I blinked a few times and smiled nervously. "I'm going on this quest. So basically Zeus thinks that Percy stole his lightning bolt, and demands him to return it, while we think that Hades took it, so Percy's going into the Underworld to get it back from him by the summer solstice with my help, and that's about it, right? Simple."

Chiron eyed me warily. "All right then. Be careful, Annabeth."

I nodded.

Chiron turned away from me and wheeled his fake wheelchair onto the porch, where Mr. D was drinking a Diet Coke and shuffling the cards. Chiron took his spot across from him. I took out my Yankees cap and put it on, waiting for Grover to return with Percy.

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 **Booyeah! Stay tuned :) (lol wuts wrong with me) -mi5hao**


	8. Chapter 8

**Hello, here is chapter eight! Sorry I might not be able to upload soon, but I'll try. I have a mountain of homework waiting for me to do it, so SORRY again. I should've done it earlier, but I was having too much fun writing this for you guys! Anyways, please enjoy this chapter :D**

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Chapter Eight: The journey begins

By now everyone was up and about, doing their normal business, but I could tell people knew something was wrong from the storm that had gathered above the camp. It was like a huge black ink whirlwind just hanging there. I had nodded off right there in the corner of the porch, but now I blinked awake. I figured it was around seven or eight? It was hard to tell with the weather, and the Apollo and Dionysus kids like to get up super early, so you couldn't really judge if you see them there. I looked around and saw Percy and Grover coming up the front porch. Chiron and Dionysus were playing pinochle like they always did against invisible opponents. They could've asked me to play, I thought a bit annoyed. They always did. Why not trust me now? Then I realized that I was still invisible. I smacked my hand to my forehead. Stupid Annabeth.

"Well, well, our little celebrity," said Mr. D. His eyes didn't move from his cards. Percy didn't move. Wise choice, I thought.

"Come closer," Mr. D said, "And don't expect me to kowtow to you, mortal, just because old Barnacle-Beard is your father." Lightning flashed across the hills and thunder boomed.

"Blah, blah, blah," Mr. D said. Chiron still stared at his cards, and Grover sort of cowered by the railing. I would've told him to be more brave, but I was invisible and it would only freak them out if I suddenly spoke.

"If I had my way, I would cause your molecules to erupt in flames," Dionysus said. "We'd sweep up the ashes and be done with a lot of trouble. But Chiron seems to feel this would be against my mission at this cursed camp: to keep you little brats safe from harm."

"Spontaneous combustion is a form of harm, Mr. D," Chiron pointed out.

"Nonsense," Dionysus said. "Boy wouldn't feel a thing. Nevertheless, I've agreed to restrain myself. I'm thinking of turning you into dolphin instead, sending you back to your father."

"Mr. D—" Chiron warned.

"Oh, all right," Mr. D said. "There's one more option. But it's deadly foolishness." The quest, I thought. Didn't Mr. D say that he "didn't mind the little brat blowing himself up"? Well, the quest'll probably have lots of opportunities for that.

Dionysus stood up. "I'm off to Olympus for the emergency meeting. If the boy is still here when I get back, I'll turn him into an Atlantic bottlenose. Do you understand? And Perseus Jackson, if you're at all smart, you'll see that's a much more sensible choice than what Chiron feels you must do."

Mr. D picked up a playing card and turned it into a security pass. Then he snapped his fingers and was gone. The invisible players disappeared and the cards dropped. Chiron turned his attention to Percy.

"Sit, Percy, please. And Grover."

They did.

"Tell me, Percy. What did you make of the hellhound?"

Percy looked down. "It scared me. If you hadn't shot it, I'd be dead." I smiled. At least he was honest and didn't try to look cool and say "Heck, it was nothing."

"You'll meet worse, Percy. Far worse, before you're done," Chiron warned.

"Done…with what?"

"Your quest, of course. Will you accept it?"

"Um, sir," said Percy, "you haven't told me what it is yet."

Chiron grimaced. "Well, that's the hard part, the details." Chiron explained them to him. Then Percy left and went to the Oracle. A few minutes later, he was back again, his face white. I could tell that the Oracle hadn't said something too pleasant. The damn thing never did.

"Well?" Chiron asked.

"She said I would retrieve what was stolen," said Percy. His voice sounded like it was hovering.

"That's great!" Grover exclaimed.

"What did the Oracle say exactly?" Chiron pressed. "This is important."

"She…she said I would go west and face a god who had turned. I would retrieve what was stolen and see it safely returned." Percy still sounded kind of hover-ish, like he was unsure.

"I knew it," Grover said.

"Anything else?" Chiron asked warily.

"No," Percy said, "That's about it." Even though he said that, I could tell that he was holding something back from the way his voice hovered, like he was unsure whether to tell us or not. I guess we all have secrets, I thought.

The conversation continued. Chiron told Percy where the bolt was, or at least where he thought it was. Grover started trembling after that.

"So let me get this straight," said Percy. "I'm supposed to go to the Underworld and confront the Lord of the Dead."

"Check," said Chiron.

"Find the most powerful weapon in the universe."

"Check."

"And get it back to Olympus before the summer solstice, in ten days."

"That's about right."

Percy looked at Grover, who gulped down another pinochle card.

"Did I mention that Maine is very nice this time of year?" he asked weakly.

"You don't have to go," Percy said. "I can't ask that of you."

"Oh ..." He shifted his hooves. "No ... it's just that satyrs and underground places ... well..."

He took a deep breath, then stood, brushing the shredded cards and aluminum bits off his T-shirt. "You saved my life, Percy. If ... if you're serious about wanting me along, I won't let you down."

Percy looked like he wanted to cry in relief. "All the way, G-man," he said. Then he turned to Chiron. "So where do we go? The Oracle just said to go west."

"The entrance to the Underworld is always in the west. It moves from age to age, just like Olympus. Right now, of course, it's in America."

"Where?"

Chiron looked genuinely surprised. "I thought that world be obvious enough. The entrance to the Underworld is in Los Angeles."

"Oh," Percy said. "Naturally. So we just get on a plane—" I jumped at that and thought, _No way you stupid seaweed brain!_ Seaweed brain? Seaweed brain? That small part of me giggled in delight. You're even making nicknames for him! it yelled gleefully. I cursed myself and turned my attention to what was going on before me. I was about to take off my cap and tell them no way about the plane, but Grover beat me to it.

"No!" he shrieked. "Percy, what are you thinking? Have you ever been on a plane in your life?"

Percy shook his head, cheeks tinted pink.

"Percy, think," Chiron said. "You are the son of the Sea God. You father's bitterest rival is Zeus, Lord of the Sky. You mother knew better than to trust you in an airplane. You would be in Zeus's domain. You would never come down again alive."

"Okay," Percy said. "So, I'll travel overland."

"That's right," Chiron said. "Two companions may accompany you. Grover is one. The other has already volunteered, if you will accept her help."

"Gee," Percy said sarcastically. "Who else would be stupid enough to volunteer for a quest like this?"

I decided to ignore that comment and took off my invisibility cap, stuffing it into my back pocket.

"I've been waiting a long time for a quest, seaweed brain," I said. "Athena is no fan of Poseidon, but if you're going to save the world, I'm the best person to keep you from messing up." And because little Annie cares for you, that small part of me cooed. Shut up, I told it.

"If you do say so yourself," Percy said. "I suppose you have a plan, wise girl?"

My cheeks heated up. "Do you want my help or not?"

"A trio," Percy said. "That'll work."

"Excellent," Chiron said. "This afternoon, we can take you as far as the bus terminal in Manhattan. After that, you are on your own. No time to waste. I think you should all get packing."

* * *

It took me a minute to pack. I decided to bring my invisibility cap (of course), a book, an extra change of clothes and a toothbrush to put in my rucksack. I also brought my knife, a gift from Luke, which I hid in my shirt sleeve in the special sheathe Beckendorf had made for me. The camp store loaned me a hundred dollars in mortal money, and twenty golden drachmas. Chiron also gave Percy and I each a canteen of nectar and a Ziplock bag full of ambrosia squares, to be used only in emergencies.

Grover wore his fake feet and his pants to pass as human. He wore a green rasta-style cap, because when it rained his curly hair flattened and you could just see the tips of his horns. His bright orange backpack was full of scrap metal and apples to snack on. He also brought a set of reed pipes his daddy goat had carved him.

We waved good-bye to everyone else and hiked up Half-Blood Hill to Thalia's tree. When no one was looking, I stepped towards the tall pine tree and put a hand on it. I murmured a prayer to my mother.

"I know you're there, Thalia," I said to the tree. "You'll always be the best hero I've ever met." I heard Chiron talking to Percy and then footsteps behind us. I stepped away from the tree hastily and saw Luke running up the hill with a pair of basketball shoes.

"Hey!" he panted. "Glad I caught you." I blushed and turned around to hide it, but I saw Percy glance at me before I could.

"Just wanted to say good luck," Luke said to Percy. "And I thought…um, maybe you could use these." He handed the sneakers to Percy, which looked pretty normal.

"Maia!" Luke said. White bird's wings sprouted out of the heels, and Percy dropped the shoes in surprise. The shoes flapped around on the ground until the wings folded up and disappeared.

"Awesome!" Grover said.

Percy blushed too. He said, "Hey, man. Thanks."

"Listen, Percy…" Luke said. He looked kind of uncomfortable for some reason. "A lot of hopes are riding o you. So just…kill some monsters for me, okay?" They shook hands. Luke patted Grover's head and gave me a hug. I blushed so much it was embarrassing.

After Luke left, Percy said, "You're hyperventilating."

"Am not," I retorted, getting all defensive.

"You let him capture the flag instead of you, didn't you?"

"Oh…why do I want to go anywhere with you, Percy?" I said, annoyed. Because you just do, the annoying voice in my mind sang. I stomped down the hill to where Argus was standing, trying to somehow get rid of the voice in my brain, but I couldn't. It just kept bugging me. I heard an "Aaaaa!" and turned to see Grover flying off the side of the hill with Luke's flying shoes. Aren't they Percy's? I thought. Then I realized he must've given them to Grover. I saw Percy and Chiron talking. Chiron gave Percy a…sword. I guess he should have a weapon. After a few more minutes, Percy came down to the bottom of the hill, with Chiron standing in full centaur form, holding his bow high in salute.

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 **YIPEE! REMEMBER TO REVIEW! SEEYALL LATER! -mi5hao**


	9. Chapter 9

**Hello everyone, I'm so sorry about this immensely huge gap between updates, but I've been busy with my studies, getting used to high school. Anyways, here you go. And to make up, another chapter is coming up right after since I have free time now, and it will be long, :) Enjoy.**

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Chapter Nine: We get attacked by three demon grandmothers

Argus drove us out of the countryside and into western Long Island. I gaped at everything, though I made sure not to let Percy notice. I stared at every shop and kid. Being a year-rounder at Camp Half-Blood, I didn't really spend much time in the outside world, where everything was real.

"So far so good," Percy said to me. "Ten miles and not a single monster."

I wanted to roll my eyes at him. Sure, we're in the outside world now, but that doesn't necessarily mean that we have to get attacked the entire time, right? I shot him an irritated look and said, "It's bad luck to talk that way, seaweed brain."

"Remind me again—why do you hate me so much?"

I glanced at Percy. Did I sound harsh? "I don't hate you," I said. It was very true.

"Could've fooled me."

I felt a pang of sadness. Percy seemed like a nice guy alright, but for gods sake did he have to be a son of that stupid sea god? I folded my cap and gritted my teeth.

"Look," I said, "we're just not supposed to get along, okay? Our parents are rivals."

"Why?"

"How many reasons do you want?" I sighed. "One time my mom caught Poseidon with his girlfriend in Athena's temple, which is hugely disrespectful. Another time, Athena and Poseidon competed to be the patron god for the city of Athens. Your dad created some stupid saltwater spring for his gift. My mom created the olive tree. The people saw that her gift was better, so they named the city after her." After my long speech, I felt slightly proud about my mom.

"They must really like olives," Percy said dumbly.

"Oh, forget it."

"Now, if she'd invented pizza—that I could understand."

"I said, forget it!" My temper rose up quickly then died down really fast when I realized what I sounded like. Shut up, I told myself. Just shut up and sit there on the van.

We got into Manhattan by sunset and it had started to rain. Argus plopped us at the Greyhound Station on the Upper East Side, unloaded out bags and sped away. I noticed Percy looking slightly uncomfortable. I stood around awkwardly by myself while Grover and Percy were talking. Guy stuff, I thought. The rain started soaking through my clothes and I pulled Grover and Percy with me under a planted tree on the sidewalk. It didn't do much good, but it was still better than nothing.

We got restless waiting for the bus and decided to play some Hacky Sack with one of Grover's apples. Percy was pretty good at it. He bounced the apple off his knee, foot, and elbow. I could bounce it off basically everywhere. The game ended when Percy tossed the apple toward Grover and it got too close to his mouth. In one mega goat bite, our Hacky Sack disappeared—core, stem, and all. Grover blushed furiously and tried to apologize, but Percy and I were too busy laughing our heads off. Finally the bus came. As we stood in line to board, Grover started looking around cautiously, sniffing the air a lot.

"What is it?" asked Percy.

"I don't know," he said tensely. "Maybe it's nothing." I glanced around carefully too, but didn't say anything. Maybe Grover smelled monsters, but it could just be the engine of the bus, which in my opinion, smelled pretty toxic and bad. But as we got on, I noticed three old ladies join the end of the line. They all looked the same, with a crumpled velvet dress, lace gloves, and a shapeless hat of different colors with a big paisley purse. They looked vaguely familiar, like I'd met them somewhere before, but just couldn't remember exactly when and who they were. I took out my Yankees cap after we got seats and slapped it nervously against my thigh, observing the old ladies. One of them, the one with the orange-knit hat tilted her head up and looked directly at us. Her eyes lingered on me for a second then fixed on Percy. My heart skipped a beat. It was Alecto, the Fury that had delivered the final blow to Thalia. The scenes ran through my mind and I suddenly felt like sobbing.

I felt Percy scrunch down in his seat. Of course, if that was Alecto, then the others would be Furies too. Which would mean that we are in big trouble. And Percy's met one of them before.

"Percy," I said urgently and clamped my hand onto his knee. The Furies sat in the front row and the two on the aisle crossed their legs over the walkway, making an X. It was casual enough for mortals not to think weirdly of it, but it sent a clear message to us: nobody leaves.

"She didn't stay dead long," Percy said, his lip quivering slightly. "I thought you said they could be dispelled for a lifetime."

"I said if you're lucky," I said. "You're obviously not."

"All three of them," Grover whimpered. "Di immortales!"

"It's okay," I said. For some reason I didn't feel scared or anything. I felt a bit angry, but still it's best to avoid a fight. "The Furies. The three worst monsters from the Underworld. No problem. No problem. We'll just slip out the windows." I looked around the bus, thinking hard.

"They don't open," Grover moaned.

"A back exit?" There wasn't one. I could tell Grover was on the verge of panic.

"They won't attack with witnesses around. Will they?" Percy asked hopefully.

"Mortals don't have good eyes," I said. "Their brains can only process what they see through the Mist."

"They'll see three old ladies killing us, won't they?"

I thought about that. "Hard to say. But can't count on mortals for help. Maybe an emergency exit in the roof…?"

We hit the Lincoln Tunnel, and the bus went dark except for the running lights down the aisle. I wished it was dark enough for us to pass through without them seeing. That's when the idea popped into my head. The key to not being seen was right there on my lap. But there was only one. Fine, I thought. I'll stay behind. This time, it'll be me sacrificing my life to save my friends. Percy's obviously the more important one, I thought grimly. It's his quest. What else are companions here for? Don't get me wrong, I DON'T want to die. But if this is the only way, I'm willing to take it.

Alecto got up. "I need to use the restroom," she announced flatly to the whole bus.

"So do I," said the second Fury.

"So do I," said the third one. They all started coming down the aisle.

"I've got it," I said. "Percy, take my hat."

"What?"

"You're the one they want. Turn invisible and go up the aisle. Let them pass you. Maybe you can get to the front and get away."

"But you guys—"

I cut him off, even though it was nice to hear him caring for me and Grover. "There's an outside chance they might not notice us," I said, though that was virtually nonexistent. "You're a son of one of the Big Three. Your smell might be overpowering."

"I can't just leave you."

"Don't worry about us," Grover put in bravely. "Go!"

Percy took the cap with trembling hands and put it on, vanishing from sight. I felt him leave our seats. Then it was just me and Grover. Time passed painstakingly slow. I watched the Furies come up the aisle. I knew Percy was there somewhere, hopefully already at the front of the bus. Suddenly the first Fury stopped and turned to stare into an empty seat around ten rows before us, sniffing furiously. I knew that Percy was there. I held my breath, not knowing whether or not have they found him yet. Then the Fury turned away and they kept coming at us. I let go of my breath with relief, but now there was a bigger problem stalking towards Grover and I. Grover started trembling.

I turned to him. "Talk to me."

"What?"

"Look casual," I said despite my fear of the things coming up to me that would most likely turn me into delicious demigod dessert. The three Furies came right up to us and stood there. I kept talking to Grover like normal kids coming home from school and forced myself not to look at the old ladies next to me. I was seriously starting to hope that they hadn't noticed us, when Alecto hissed, "Demigod."

My blood froze. Grover whimpered.

I spun around as they surrounded us, hissing. The other passengers looked at them strangely. Then, they transformed from old ladies to hags with bat's wings and hands and feet like gargoyle claws, holding fiery whips. They looked exactly like they had when they chased Thalia, Luke, Grover and I across the dirt road leading to camp. I wanted to cower behind someone, but I stood my ground (or more accurately sat my seat).

"Where is it? Where?" They hissed, lashing at us with their whips. It? Was Percy an it? Maybe all demigods were considered "it"s in monster language, but I couldn't ponder on it much longer.

"He's not here!" I yelled desperately. "He's gone!" Which I sincerely hoped was true. The Furies raised their whips. I drew my bronze knife while Grover grabbed a tin can from his snack bag and prepared to throw it.

Suddenly the bus jerked to the left. Everyone howled as they were thrown to the right, and the Furies screeched as they smashed against the windows. Grover held on to me to keep me from tumbling into the aisle. Percy, I thought, irritated. The bus slammed against the side of the tunnel, the whole time throwing people around. I got flipped into the seat in front of me, and landed perfectly, even though I wasn't expecting it. Thank Chiron's training, and that the seat was empty. The bus plowed through cars and somehow ended up on one of those New Jersey rural roads of nothingness. The bus wailed and spun a full circle on the wet asphalt as someone hit the emergency brake and crashed into the trees. The emergency lights came on. The door flew open. Everyone stampeded out, leaving the bus empty except for us and the Furies. I hoped that Percy had gone through that door as well.

The Furies regained their balance. They lashed their whips at me. Every time one of the whips connected with my body, I whimpered a bit from the blazing pain. I waved my knife and yelled at them in Ancient Greek. Grover threw tin cans. Then, someone yelled, "Hey!" I turned at the same time as the Furies to see Percy standing at the open doorway. I wanted to yell at him in frustration, but lucky for him I was too busy trying save my own life.

"Perseus Jackson," Alecto growled. "You have offended the gods. You shall die."

"I liked you better as a math teacher," Percy told her. I moved up behind the three Furies cautiously with Grover, looking for an opening. Percy took a pen out of his pocket and uncapped it. A shimmered Celestial bronze blade appeared. Nice, I thought. The Furies hesitated.

"Submit now," Alecto hissed. "And you will not suffer eternal torment."

"Nice try," Percy said coolly. I watched as if in slow motion as Alecto's arm muscles bunch under her wings, and I knew a split second before she did it that she was going to lash her whip at Percy.

"Percy, look out!" I cried a moment too late. Alecto lashed out her whip around Percy's sword hand while the Furies on the either side lunged at him. I saw Percy's eyes widen in pain from the whip but he managed not to drop his sword. He even stuck the Fury on the right with his sword hilt, sending her toppling backward into a seat. Then he turned and sliced the Fury on the left, who screamed. I jumped on the one in the middle—the one I hated the most—and got her in a wrestler's hold and yanked her back, putting all my emotions in that motion. Grover ripped her whip out of her hands.

"Ow!" he yelled. "Ow! Hot! Hot!"

The Fury Percy'd hilt-slammed came at him again, talons ready. I opened my mouth ready to warn him, but he was ready this time. Percy swung his sword and she broke open like a piñata. Alecto kept bucking, clawing, kicking, hissing and biting at me, but I gripped onto her. Grover tied her legs together with her own whip and we shoved her backward into the aisle.

"Zeus will destroy you!" she promised. "Hades will have you soul!" Percy yelled something in Latin, but then the bus shook with thunder. Lightning comes after thunder, I thought. The hairs on the back of my neck stood up. Danger. "Get out!," I yelled. "Now!"

We rushed outside of the bus, when I realized that we'd left our bags.

"Our bags!" Grover exclaimed, echoing my thoughts. "We left our—"

BOOOOOM!

The windows of the bus exploded as the passengers ran for cover. Lightning shredded a huge crater in the roof, but an angry wail sounded from inside. I shivered. I knew that wail all too well.

"Run!" I said. "She's calling for reinforcements! We have to get out of here!"

We plunged into the woods as the rain poured down, the bus in flames behind us, and nothing but darkness ahead.

* * *

In a way, it's nice to know there are Greek gods out there because you have somebody to blame when things go wrong. For instance, when you're walking away from a bus that's just been attacked by monster hags and blown up by lightning, and it's raining on top of everything else, most people might think that's just really bad luck; when you're a half-blood, you understand that some divine force really is trying to mess up you day.

So there we were, Percy and Grover and I, walking through the woods along the New Jersey riverbank, the glow of New York City making the night sky yellow behind us, and the smell of the Hudson reeking in our noses. Grover was shivered and braying, his big goat eyes turned to slits and full of terror.

"Three Kindly Ones. All three at once."

The boys kept lagging and slowing down, but I pulled them along, plagued with memories of what had happened when I was on the run with Thalia and Luke.

"Come on! The farther away we get, the better."

"All our money was back there," Percy said sadly. "Out food and clothes. Everything."

My ball of frustration finally exploded. My first quest, and it wasn't going extremely well. "Well, maybe if you hadn't decided to jump into the fight—"

"What did you want me to do? Let you get killed?"

"You didn't need to protect me, Percy. I would've been fine."

"Sliced like sandwich bread," Grover added, "but fine."

"Shut up, goat boy," I said, closing my eyes.

"Tin cans…a perfectly good bag of tin cans."

We sloshed across mushy ground, through nasty twisted trees that smelled like sour laundry. I thought about what Percy had said. Obviously I had needed help. I knew that. I'm not stupid. I fell into line next to Percy after a few silent minutes. "Look," I said, "I…I appreciate your coming back for us, okay? That was really brave."

"We're a team, right?"

I smiled in the dark. "It's just that if you died…aside from the fact that it would really suck for you, it would mean the quest was over. This may be my only chance to see the real world."

The thunderstorm finally cleared up, and the city glow faded behind us, leaving us in almost total darkness. I couldn't see anything of Percy except the glint of his sea green eyes.

"You haven't left Camp Half-Blood since you were seven?" Percy asked me curiously.

"No…only short field trips. My dad—"

"The history professor."

"Yeah. It didn't work out for me living at home." I don't know what I was doing. I just suddenly felt the need to rush everything out. I felt like finally letting out something that'd I'd concealed for so long. It felt good to let someone know now. I started talking in a rushing way now, because I was afraid that is someone interrupted me, I would completely lose the courage to tell anyone again.

"I mean," I said, "Camp Half-Blood is my home. At camp you train and train. And that's all cool and everything, but the real world is where the monsters are. That's where you learn whether you're any good or not." A small flicker of doubt crossed my mind. I'd been in the real world when I was seven. And I hadn't been able to save Thalia. Was I really any good?

"You're pretty good with that knife," Percy said.

"You think so?"

"Anybody who can piggyback-ride a Fury is okay by me."

I smiled, but bit it back a second after I did.

"You know," I said, "maybe I should tell you…Something funny back on the bus…" I was about to tell Percy about the strangeness of the fact that the Furies said "it" when a shrill toot-toot-toot interrupted me.

"Hey, my reed pipes still work!" Grover cried. "If I could just remember a 'find path' song, we could get out of these woods!" He puffed a few notes, but it still sounded like an owl being tortured (no offense Grover). Then a second later, Percy slammed his head against a tree. Real smooth man.

* * *

 **I would keep writing but then this chapter would be too long. So it continues in the next one, which will be uploaded in five minutes. -mi5hao**


	10. Chapter 10

**Chapter ten has arrived for all eager readers. Enjoy!**

* * *

Chapter ten: We get attacked again but this time by an evil aunt

After another mile of tripping and cursing, I started to see light up ahead and I could smell food. Burgers, I thought excitedly. We never had those at camp. We kept walking and I was straining myself from bolting straight towards the smell. There was one open business, which was the source of the light and the good smell. This restaurant was kind of weird though. It had cement statues all over the place. There was a neon sign above the gate which was like acid to my dyslexia eyes. It looked like: ATNYU MES GDERAN GOMEN MEPROUIM.

"What the heck does that say?" Percy asked.

I dug my nails into my palms. "I don't know," I said, frustrated and defeated. My least favorite words: I don't know.

"Aunty Em's Garden Gnome Emporium," Grover translated for us. Percy crossed the street and I followed, the smell of the hamburgers luring me in.

"Hey…" Grover warned.

"The lights are on inside," I said hopefully. "Maybe it's open."

"Snack bar," Percy said wistfully. The smell and the fact that it was already nighttime made me sleepy. I couldn't think straight. "Snack bar," I agreed dumbly.

"Are you two crazy?" Grover said. "This place is weird." I ignored him and so did Percy. I was completely distracted by the food now. My stomach grumbled loudly, and I didn't even blush at the loud noise. The front lot was covered with statues: cement animals, cement children, even a cement satyr playing the pipes, which gave Grover the creeps.

"Bla-ha-ha!" he bleated a bit fearfully. "Looks like my Uncle Ferdinand!" That set off a warning bell in my mind, and the small part of me that I'm now going to call Annabeth-mini yelled at me through my sleepy mind.

Danger! it cried. Wake up, Annabeth.

Shut up, I told it. This girl here needs a serious burger right now.

We stopped at the warehouse door.

"Don't knock," Grover pleaded. "I smell monsters."

"Your nose is clogged up from the Furies," I said in my dream-like state. "All I smell is burgers. Aren't you hungry?"

"Meat!" Grover said distastefully. "I'm a vegetarian."

"You eat cheese enchiladas and aluminum cans," Percy said.

"Those are vegetables. Come on. Let's leave. These statues are…looking at me."

Then the door creaked open, and standing in front of us was a tall women completely covered in a long black gown except her hands. Even her head was completely veiled. Danger, Annabeth, Annabeth-mini squeaked at me, but I didn't really hear it. Focus!

Will you just shut up? I thought, irritated.

"Children, it is too late to out all alone. Where are your parents?" the women asked us.

"They're…um…" I started slowly, being drunk on the smell of food.

"We're orphans," Percy said.

"Orphans? But, my dears! Surely not!" the women exclaimed.

"We got separated from our caravan," Percy lied smoothly. "Our circus caravan. The ringmaster told us to meet him at the gas station if we got lost, but he may have forgotten, or maybe he meant a different gas station. Anyway, we're lost. Is that food I smell?"

Nice approach, I thought with my sleepy brain. Good tactical way…

"Oh, my dears," the woman said. "You must come in, poor children. I am Aunty Em. Go straight through to the back of the warehouse, please. There is a dining area."

We thanked her and went inside.

"Circus caravan?" I muttered to Percy. I actually wanted to say it as a question, but my sleepy brain was having problem sending signals to my mouth.

"Always have a strategy, right?"

"Your head is full of kelp." Even though I said that, I felt like I was the one with a kelp-full head, the drowsiness that I was feeling. The warehouse was filled with more statues—people in different outfits, with different expressions their faces. I started thinking—as much as I could think with my brain going into coma mode—that it must've been a pretty big garden to fit all that stuff. Then the smell overwhelmed me again and that's all I focused on. It was like a drug. Wake up! Annabeth-mini squealed at me. This time, I listened. I forced my eyelids open for a few seconds but that was too much, like withdrawal from drugs. I couldn't take it for some reason. I wanted to shout at myself, but I was too tired to even do that.

Call me an idiot for walking in Aunty Em's strange shop just like that. But then I was sleepy and hungry at the same time. Annabeth-mini kept shouting at me, like the fact that Aunty Em had locked the door behind us, and Grover's obvious whimpers. In a way I'm grateful of Annabeth-mini, because it's the part of me that's always awake. I was sure that there was some kind of chemicals in that smell, because it was dominating me completely.

"Please, sit down," Aunty Em said as we arrived in the dining area. There was a fast-food counter with a grill, a soda fountain, a pretzel heater and even a nacho cheese dispenser. Perfect. No! yelled Annabeth-mini. Danger!

But my hunger took over and I told Annabeth-mini to shut up.

"Awesome," Percy said.

"Um," Grover said reluctantly, "we don't have any money, ma'am."

"No, no, children," Aunty Em said. "No money. This is a special case, yes? It is my treat, for such nice orphans."

"Thank you, ma'am," I said instinctively. Aunty Em stiffened for a millisecond and then relaxed even faster that I wasn't sure if it was my imagination or not.

"Quite all right, Annabeth," Aunty Em replied. "You have such beautiful gray eyes, child." She disappeared behind the snack counter and started cooking. I didn't say anything, just sat down, but Aunty Em saying my name had triggered a warning bell in my mind. I'd never introduced myself, I realized. My brain cleared. Then Aunty Em returned with the food and my mind fogged up again. I chowed down everything the speed of light then slurped my shake just as fast.

"What's that hissing noise?" Grover asked suddenly. I listened too, but couldn't hear anything so I shook my head, feeling even more sleepy.

"Hissing?" Aunty Em asked. "Perhaps you hear the deep-fryer oil. You have keen ears, Grover."

That set off another warning bell in my mind and I seemed to be more awake than before. How did Aunty Em know Grover's name? We didn't tell her anything about else apart from the lie Percy told her…

"I take vitamins," Grover said. "For my ears."

"That's admirable," Aunty Em said. "But please, relax." She leaned forward and interlaced her fingers and watched us eat. Her fingers twitched whenever I looked at her.

"So, you sell gnomes," Percy said in an obvious attempt to sound interested, though he was failing.

"Oh, yes," Aunty Em said. "And animals. And people. Anything for the garden. Custom orders. Statuary is very popular, you know."

"A lot of business on this road?"

"Not so much, no. Since the highway was built…most cars, they do not go this way now. I must cherish every customer I get."

Percy suddenly turned around and I looked too. He was looking at a statue of a young girl holding an Easter basket. The detail was amazing, but there was something wrong with her face. She looked like she was startled, or even terrified.

"Ah," Aunty Em said sadly. "You notice some of my creations do not turn out well. They are marred. They do not sell. The face is the hardest to get right. Always the face."

"You make these statues yourself?" Percy asked.

"Oh, yes. Once upon a time, I had two sisters to help me in the business, but they have passed on, and Aunty Em is alone. I have only my statues. This is why I make them, you see. They are my company." Aunty Em sounded pretty said, but something was starting to form in my mind. The drowsiness cleared away and I was suddenly aware that I was eating something that I had no idea what's in it. So I stopped abruptly.

"Two sisters?" I questioned.

"It's a terrible story," Aunty Em said. "Not one for children, really. You see, Annabeth, a bad woman was jealous of me, long ago, when I was young. I had a…a boyfriend, you know, and this bad woman was determined to break us apart. She caused a terrible accident. My sisters stayed by me. They shared my bad fortune as long as they could, but eventually they passed on. They faded away. I alone have survived, but at a price. Such a price."

Faded away? I thought. Mortals don't "fade away", unless…unless they were monsters. Suddenly the story seemed very familiar. "One time my mom caught Poseidon with his girlfriend in Athena's temple, which is hugely disrespectful." That's what I'd said to Percy earlier. Poseidon's girlfriend had been…Medusa. And she had two sisters, the other two gorgons. The statues around me. The veil. Hissing noise…snakes. Aunty Em, I thought. Aunty _M_.

"Percy?" I shook his arm. "Maybe we should go. I mean, the ringmaster will be waiting." I was anxious to get out of here now. Grover was right. He did smell monsters.

"Such beautiful gray eyes," Aunty Em said to me. "My, yes, it has been a long time since I've seen gray eyes like those." She reached out to me but I stood up abruptly.

"We really should go."

"Yes!" Grover said. "The ringmaster is waiting! Right!"

"Please, dears," Aunty Em pleaded. "I so rarely get to be with children. Before you go, won't you at least sit for a pose?"

"A pose?" I asked warily, calculating hard. Would there be any chance for her to unwrap that veil?

"A photograph. I will use it to model a new statue set. Children are so popular, you see. Everyone loves children."

I shifted my weight from foot to foot. "I don't think we can, ma'am. Come on, Percy—"

"Sure we can," Percy said, glaring at me. "It's just a photo, Annabeth. What's the harm?"

"Yes, Annabeth," Aunty Em/Medusa purred. "No harm."

I hated it completely, but the quest was Percy's. We followed Aunty Em back to the front door, into the garden of statues. She sat us on the park bend next to the stone satyr, with me in the middle and Percy and Grover on either side.

"Not much light for a photo," Percy commented.

"Oh, enough," Aunty Em/Medusa said. "Enough for us to see each other, yes?"

"Where's your camera?" Grover asked.

Aunty Em/Medusa stepped back, as if to admire the shot. "Now, the face is the most difficult. Can you smile for me please, everyone? A large smile?"

Grover glanced at the cement satyr next to him, and mumbled, "That sure does look like Uncle Ferdinand."

"Grover," Aunty Em chastised, "look this way, dear."

She still had no camera in her hands.

"Percy—" I said. Something was wrong. Definitely wrong.

"I will just be a moment," Aunty Em/Medusa said. "You know, I can't see you very well in this cursed veil..."

"Percy, something's wrong," I insisted.

"Wrong?" Aunty Em/Medusa said, reaching up to undo the wrap around her head. "Not at all, dear. I have such noble company tonight. What could be wrong?" Oh no, I thought. Time to fight Medusa.

"That is Uncle Ferdinand!" Grover gasped.

I confirmed my fears. "Look away from her!" I shouted, whipping on my Yankees cap. I pushed both Grover and Percy off the bench. Grover scrambled off in one direction, and I went in the other. I knew that Grover knew what was happening. But Percy didn't. He started looking up in a daze. His eyes shifted to Medusa's hands, then shifted a bit higher.

"No! Don't!" I screamed just before his eyes reached hers.

"Run!" Grover bleated. I heard him racing across the gravel, yelling, "Maia!".

I turned away from Medusa, running towards the statues in the garden. I kept my eyes shut tight, not even taking the chance to look to see where Percy was.

"Such a pity to destroy a handsome young face," Medusa said in that soothing voice. "Stay with me, Percy. All you have to do is look up." And the problem happens here. Because of what she said, I had to sneak a peek at what Percy was doing. His head started to move, and a scream rose in my throat when he looked to the side at something. Medusa had her back away from me. I glanced at what Percy was looking at and saw one of those glass spheres that people put in their gardens—a gazing ball.

"The Gray-Eyed One did this to me, Percy," Medusa said. "Annabeth's mother, the cursed Athena, turned me from a beautiful woman into this."

I figured Medusa was probably about to come and find me now, to destroy me. Then I realized that I was still wearing my Yankees cap. "Don't listen to her!" I shouted. "Run, Percy!" I groped around blindly, looking for an opening (somehow).

"Silence!" Medusa snarled. Then her voice went back to that comforting grandmother voice. "You see why I must destroy the girl, Percy. She is my enemy's daughter. I shall crush her statue to dust. But you, dear Percy, you need not suffer."

He reminds you of Poseidon, I thought disgustedly. Then I focused on the matter in hand, which is a pretty big one.

"Grover!" I whisper-shouted, while Medusa kept talking to Percy, hoping he would hear me. Fortunately, he did without Medusa noticing. I heard something crash-land on the statue next to me .

"Grover, get a tree branch and attack from the sky using your shoes. I'll try to find an opening. We have to get Percy out of his daze," I said desperately. I drew my knife as Grover nodded then flew into the trees. A moment later he appeared with a branch the size of a baseball bat.

"Nice," I muttered to myself.

"Percy!"

I turned on instinct and saw Grover flying with his eyes shut tight, navigating by ears and nose alone.

"Duck!" Grover yelled. Percy jerked violently like someone just shook him and dove to a side behind a statue of an old man with a cane.

Thwack!

"You miserable satyr," Medusa roared. "I'll add you to my collection!"

"That was for Uncle Ferdinand!" Grover yelled defiantly. Ker-whack!

"Arrgh!"

I scrambled around in the statuary when I spotted Percy, who looked pretty shocked. I hurried over to him. "Percy!" I said. He jumped so high he could've gotten champion for high jump in the Olympics.

"Jeez!" he exclaimed. "Don't do that!"

I took off my cap. "You have to cut her head off," I said, sounding extremely dumb.

"What? Are you crazy? Let's get out of here."

"Medusa is a menace. She's evil. I'd kill her myself, but…" I swallowed. It's always like this for some reason, like I have to force myself to accept the idea of me not doing everything. "But you've got the better weapon. Besides, I'd never get close to her. She'd slice me to bits because of my mother. You—you've got a chance."

"What? I can't—"

"Look, do you want her turning more innocent people into statues?" I pointed at a pair of statue lovers, when my eyes fixed on a gazing ball on a nearby pedestal. If we couldn't look at her directly…I grabbed it and studied the reflection size.

"A polished shield would be better," I said, mostly to myself. "The convexity will cause some distortion. The reflection's size should be off by a factor of—"

"Would you speak English?" Percy said, sounding irritated.

"I am!" I tossed him the ball. "Just look at her in the glass. Never look at her directly."

"Hey, guys!" Grover yelled. "I think she's unconscious!"

"Roooaaarrr!"

"Maybe not."

"Hurry," I said to Percy. "Grover's got a great nose, but he'll eventually crash." Percy took out his impressive pen-sword and advanced with his eyes locked on the green gazing ball.

* * *

 **Hooray! Cliffie...sort of. Anyways, hope you enjoyed that! -mi5hao**


	11. Chapter 11

**Hi! Sorry about the very, very, very long lag between this chapter and the last.**

* * *

Chapter Eleven: Our quest continues…

I pulled out my own knife and picked up another gazing ball, using it to follow Percy and hopefully help him on chopping Medusa's head off. I held my knife the way you would if you were to throw it, because I knew there was no way I'd get close to Medusa. So I'd have to aid him from a distance. Which would equal knife-throwing. Which would probably equal me shish-kebabing the wrong person due to my horrible aiming skills. Grover started coming in again with his bat but this time I could tell something was off. He was flying too low, which would mean that Medusa could possibly grab his stick and swing him off course around twenty degrees using the momentum from his flight since it's just a simple physics equation of…okay, I think I should stop confusing everyone thoroughly.

Anyway, Medusa did grab Grover's tree branch and he tumbled through the air and crashed into the arms of a stone grizzly bear with a painful "Ummphh!" Medusa was about to lunge on him when someone yelled, "Hey!"

Percy. I knew it was him. He approached Medusa slowly—twenty feet, ten feet. She could've just charged but she must've still had some kind of a crush on his dad. I felt a crazy fleeting sense of pride for a second when I knew he should've realized that I was right, he did have a chance, when I realized Grover was still there on that bear. I hurried towards him with my eyes fixed on the gazing ball when I almost slipped on something. I risked looking down and saw that it was Medusa's black veil. I don't know why, but I picked it up and stuffed it into my pocket. I was distantly aware of Medusa talking to Percy.

I reached Grover quickly and his eyes were still shut tight when he moaned, "Percy, don't listen to her!" I spun around despite the chances of me seeing her eyes and saw Medusa lunging at Percy with her talons, so fast that I didn't even have time to react. But then Percy reacted even faster and in a whirl of bronze I heard a sickening shlock! and the head toppling to the ground. I shut my eyes quickly as the rest of her disintegrated.

"Oh, yuck," Grover said. "Mega-yuck."

I pulled out Medusa's veil and moved up to Percy, my eyes fixed on the sky. "Don't move," I said. Then, very, very carefully, without looking down, I knelt and draped Medusa's head in black cloth, then picked it up. I made sure it was wrapped around fully, so we wouldn't become stone demigods with a dripping head in the middle of the garden.

"Are you okay?" I asked Percy, my voice trembling slightly from relief.

"Yeah," Percy said uncertainly. "Why didn't…why didn't the head evaporate?"

"Once you sever it, it becomes a spoil of war," I said, feeling more like the normal know-it-all me, "Same as your minotaur horn. But don't unwary the head. It can still petrify you."

There was some moaning and Grover climbed down from the bear statue, a big welt on his forehead and his rasta cap hanging from one of his little horns. His fake feet were gone, and his magic sneakers were flying around his head.

"The Red Baron," Percy said. "Good job, man."

Grover grinning bashfully. "That really was not fun, though. Well, the hitting-her-with-a-stick part, that was fun. But crashing into a concrete bear? Not fun."

The three of us got our things together and stumbled back to the warehouse. We found some old plastic grocery bags and doubled-wrapped Medusa's head. Then we doubled-wrapped that. We plopped it on the table where we'd eaten dinner and sat around it, too exhausted to speak.

After a while, Percy said, "So we have Athena to thank for this monster?"

I would have exploded into an entire speech arguing against that if this was a normal situation but it wasn't and I was tired, so I just shot him an irritated look. "Your dad, actually. Don't you remember? Medusa was Poseidon's girlfriend. They decided to meet in my mother's temple. That's why Athena turned her into a monster. Medusa and her two sisters who had helped her get into the temple, they became the three gorgons. That's why Medusa wanted to slice me up, but she wanted to preserve you as a nice statue. She's still sweet on your dad. You probably reminded her of him." Sorry, but I can't live without an explanation.

Percy's face looked a little red. "Oh, so now it's my fault we met Medusa," he said. I frowned internally at that. I didn't say that. But after thinking about it, yeah, it was his fault. And what's with the attitude?

I straightened up. "'It's just a photo, Annabeth. What's the harm?'" I said, trying and failing to imitate him.

"Forget it. You're impossible," said Percy.

"You're insufferable," I retorted.

"You're—"

"Hey!" Grover interrupted. "You two are giving me a migraine, and satyrs don't even get migraines. What are we going to do with the head?"

Percy and I returned to reality and we stared at the head. A little snake was hanging out of the hold in the plastic bag, and to be honest, I felt like we were a pretty much the saddest quest group ever. Three kids slouched in chairs around a sad plastic wrapped head in an abandoned warehouse with creepy statues all around us, no money, no direction, no clue where to go. In the myths, the heroes were always glorious, and they finished their quests like it was a piece of cake.

Percy suddenly got up. "I'll be back."

"Percy," I called after him. "What are you—"

Percy disappeared into the back of the warehouse. I turned back to Grover. He shrugged. A thought came to my mind, and I reached across the table and tapped Grover on his horns.

"Huh?" Grover said, his head coming up from where it was in his arms.

"You know on the bus?" I said. I was vaguely aware that I was going to tell Percy this before we arrived here and I completely forgot about it. "The Kindly Ones said, 'Where is it?' I was thinking and…I get the feeling they weren't looking for Percy."

Grover frowned at me. "What?"

"They said 'Where is it?'. Not 'Where is he?'," I said, emphasizing the 'it'. Realization seemed to dawn on Grover.

"But…" he said. "But that doesn't make sense!"

I nodded. "That's why I think there's something wrong about this quest. Something's off."

Grover thought about that. "Yeah," he said. "Maybe. Are we being used? Well anyways, we'll have to keep Percy safe until—"

Percy came back into the room and Grover stopped mid sentence. I glanced at Percy. Keep him safe? He seemed to be trying to make that hard for us on purpose. I sighed. Why did I ever sign up for this stupid quest?

Percy placed a delivery box on the picnic table, packed up Medusa's head, and filled out a delivery slip. I leaned over and looked at it. It said:

The Gods

Mount Olympus,

600th Floor,

Empire State Building,

New York, NY

With best wishes,

PERCY JACKSON

"They're not going to like that," Grover warned. "They'll think you're impertinent."

Percy ignored him and poured some golden drachmas in the pouch. There was a sound like a cash register and the package floated off the table and disappeared with a pop!

"I am impertinent," he said. Then he looked at me, as if challenging me to criticize him. So I didn't. If he wanted to be incinerated, that's fine with me.

"Come on," I muttered. "We need a new plan."

* * *

Long story short, we were pretty miserable that night. We camped out in the woods, a hundred yards away from the main road, in a marshy clearing that local kids had obviously been using for parties. The ground was littered with flattened soda cans and fast-food wrappers.

We took some food and blankets from Medusa's warehouse, but we didn't dare light a fire to dry our damp clothes. We really didn't need another attack. Two major battles was enough, in my opinion.

We decided to sleep in shifts, and Percy volunteered to take first watch. I was grateful for that, because I was really tired. The last thing I remember seeing was Grover fluttering up to a tree. Then my world went dark and I drifted blissfully into the land of dreams.

The only problem: it wasn't exactly a nice dream.

In my dream, there was a huge hole in front of me. And I mean, a huge hole, It was dark all around and all I could see were misty gray creatures. And then there was that whispering. The hair on the back of my neck stood up straight. It was the same pit. I realized with a chill. The same one in my dreams two days back. It was so bottomless so…Tartarus, I thought suddenly. It's Tartarus down there. Realization dawned on me. Just like the myths…a bottomless pit…

I took a step back, almost like a stagger. I need to get out of here, I thought frantically. Except then, I tripped, and I fell on my butt. I started to slide down. My eyes widened in fear. Not like last time, I thought, grasping at my last bit of thought urging me not to give up. I pulled out my knife and jabbed it into the ground. I stopped slipping, and I let out a sigh of relief. My feet scrabbled on the ground and managed to get back up. Black, glass chips were kicked into the chasm as I crawled out. I watched as they disappeared.

Suddenly, I could see a shadow a few feet away from me at the edge of the pit. It was vaguely human. The misty spirits went and crowded around the figure. And most hauntingly, when the gray light from the spirits lit up the figure's face, I could recognize it. It was Percy. I felt myself teetering on the edge of panic. What the heck was going on?

"Get back!" I yelled at him as he suddenly walked straight to the edge of the pit.

He can't hear you, came an ancient voice. It sent chills down my back. I didn't want to think about what thing in that pit could've said that. That's when a small voice in the back of my mind whispered, "Wake up. Wake up." Wake up? I pulled out my knife, closed my eyes and held the tip of the knife to my fingertip. I could feel the coolness of the blade. When I was about to prick my fingertip, there was a brilliant flash of light and my eyes flew open.

I stared at the stuff in front of me. It was green spikes and they coming out of the side of the brown wall. I jumped up almost pulled out my knife when I heard, "Whoa Annabeth! Calm down, what's wrong?"

My eyes adjusted and I realized that the green spikes was actually grass and the brown wall was dirt. I was sleeping and now I had woken up. Grover stood in front of me.

"Are you okay?"

I nodded, my heart rate slowing down. I sat down and noticed Percy sleeping next to me. Grover sat down too. He had something in his lap. At first I thought it was a stuffed animal. Then I realized that it was a pink poodle.

"Uh," I said, "Where did you get that?"

The poodle yapped at me and I moved back a bit.

"It's okay," he said. For a second i thought he was talking to me. Then I realized that he was talking to the poodle. Grover can talk to animals? Oh right, he's a satyr.

"This is Gladiola, Annabeth" Grover said to me. "Meet Annabeth," Grover said to the poodle.

"Hi Gladiola," I said. The poodle made a growling sound in it's throat. I wasn't sure if that meant nice to meet you.

"How did you find it…I mean Gladiola," I asked Grover.

"Oh. I just passed by him when I was walking around in the woods."

"Oh." I still wasn't sure why Grover had to bring Gladiola here.

"Gladiola is our ticket west," Grover told me. "He ran away from his family and they've put up a $200 prize if we 'find' him."

I immediately took the hint. "But…if he ran away, is he willing to help us?"

Grover nodded. "He's a nice poodle."

I shrugged. "Sure." I noticed train tracks downhill, and I figured this was probably the best plan. "I'll make breakfast then."

Grover nodded. "I'll wait for Percy to wake up."

* * *

 **I cannot promise a fast update. Sorry. I just have too many ideas, including fanfiction and my own creations.**


	12. Chapter 12

**So, I have a few things to say:**

 **1\. I am so incredibly sorry to keep you all waiting for what, around half a year?**

 **2\. I am still very sorry**

 **3\. Sorry sorry sorry**

 **4\. I hope you enjoy this chapter -mi5hao**

* * *

Chapter Twelve: The Gateway Arch

I glanced over at Percy. He was still asleep, and the sun was completely up, drying my clothes. Grover glanced at Percy too.

"I'll wake him up," I said. Grover shrugged then nodded. I moved over to Percy and shook him. No reaction. I shook him again, and still he didn't wake up. So I kept shaking him until slowly, I could see the green eyes.

"Well," I said, grinning, "the zombie lives."

"How long was I asleep?"

"Long enough for me to cook breakfast," I said. I tossed him a bag of nacho-flavored corn chips from Aunty Em's snack bar. "And Grover went exploring. Look, he found a friend."

Percy stared for a while a1t Gladiola. Gladiola yapped at Percy. "No, he's not," said Grover.

Percy blinked a few times. "Are you…talking to that thing?"

Gladiola growled. "This thing," Grover said in a warning tone, "is our ticket west. Be nice to him."

"You can talk to animals?"

"Percy, meet Gladiola. Gladiola, Percy," said Grover. Percy turned and looked at me.

"I'm not saying hello to a pink poodle," he said. "Forget it."

"Percy," I said. "I said hello to the poodle. You say hello to the poodle."

The poodle growled at him again.

Percy said hello to the poodle. Grover explained the whole situation.

"How does Gladiola know about the reward?" Percy asked.

"He read the signs," Grover replied. "Duh." Yeah. Isn't it obvious that a dog can read signs, huh?

"Of course," Percy said. "Silly me."

"So we turn in Gladiola," I explained, "we get money, and we buy tickets to Los Angeles. Simple."

"Not another bus," Percy said warily.

"No," I agreed. The last one hadn't worked out pretty well. I pointed downhill to the train tracks I'd spotted earlier.

"There's an Amtrak station half a mile that way. According to Gladiola, the westbound train leaves at noon," I said.

* * *

I jerked awake for the fifth time in a row. I lifted my head and glanced around the train, then at Percy sitting next to me. We hadn't been able to afford berths in the sleeper car from the Gladiola reward money. It was only enough for going as far as Denver and we got sitting tickets. It wasn't exactly the most comfortable for two days, and I mean day and night, sitting, but I guess we couldn't really hope for anything better.

Percy was sleeping next to me, and I couldn't help most notice how cute he looked when he was asleep. Of course, I'm never going to tell him that.

"I won't help you," Percy mumbled suddenly and I almost jumped into the air from my spot.

"Jeez, don't scare me like that," I said. When he didn't reply, I realized that he was still asleep. Then Grover bleated the most goat-like bleat in the world and a few other passengers looked around. They didn't seem to find a goat, so they just shrugged and went back to whatever they were doing.

Percy's eyes opened and he sat up. Grover bleated again and shuffled around. His fake foot fell off. My eyes widened and Percy and I stuck it back on before any of the other passengers noticed.

"So," I started, once Grover's hoof, or foot or whatever, was readjusted. "Who wants your help?"

"What do you mean?"

"When you were asleep just now, you mumbled, 'I won't help you.' Who were you dreaming about?"

Percy looked at his feet. "Well," he said, "There was this pit. A really huge one. And there was an evil voice. Like, coming from the pit. It kept laughing and saying I'm a pawn of the Olympians or something. And it was telling me to…bring it the lightning bolt and to help it get itself out of the pit. It also offered my mom in trade."

A chill settled over my shoulders. I didn't speak for a long time. That was exactly what I had dreamed of! Except, I had been like a viewer at the side. And I had watched him.

"I think it's Hades. You know," Percy added.

I frowned. "That doesn't sound like Hades. He always appears on a black throne, and he never laughs." But what do you know, Annabeth?

"He offered my mother in trade. Who else could do that?" Percy asked.

"I guess…if he meant, 'Help me rise from the Underworld.' If he wants war with the Olympians," I reasoned slowly. But something was wrong. I could tell. "But why ask you to bring him the master bolt if he already has it?"

Percy just shook his head tiredly. I fiddled with the hem of my shirt and readjusted Grover's cap so it covered his horns, thought you couldn't really see them anyways. "Percy," I said, "you can't barter with Hades. You know that right?" I glanced at him. "He's deceitful, heartless, and greedy. I don't care if his Kindly Ones weren't as aggressive this time—"

"This time?"

Oops. Why did I have to say that?

"You mean you've run into them before?" Percy asked. My hand went instinctively to my necklace. The truth was yes. The lie was no. I decided just to not answer.

"Let's just saw I've got no love for the Lord of the Dead. You can't be tempted to make a deal for your mom."

"What would you do if it was your dad?"

I almost snorted. "That's easy. I'd leave him to rot."

"You're not serious?"

I turned and looked straight at Percy. I told him parts about my dad. Parts, not the entire thing. I wasn't going to spill out my entire soul to this…random and stupid dude.

"He never wanted a baby. When he got me, he asked Athena to take me back and raise on Olympus because he was too busy with his work. She wasn't happy about that. She told him heroes had to be raised by their mortal parent," I said, fingering the college ring on my necklace.

"But how…I mean, I guess you weren't born in a hospital…" Percy struggled to make it sound less awkward. I laughed inwardly at him. It was cute. I mean…ugh! Goddamn it.

"I appeared on my father's doorstep, in a golden cradle, carried down from Olympus by Zephyr the West Wind," I explained patiently. "You'd think my dad would remember that as a miracle, right? Like, maybe he'd take some digital photos or something. But he always talked about my arrival as if it were the most inconvenient thing that had ever happened to him. When I was five he got married and totally forgot about Athena. He got a 'regular' mortal wife, and had two 'regular' mortal kids, and tried to pretend I didn't exist."

Percy looked away. I looked the other way, furiously blinking. I can't let my emotions get the better of me. I mean, I'm Annabeth!

"My mom married a really awful guy," Percy told me. "Grover said she did it to protect me, to hide me in the scent of a human family. Maybe that's what your dad was thinking."

I pinched the stupid ring. Why I wore it, I have no idea. I guess…I wanted to have a reminder that I can survive on my own? I don't know. I glanced at Percy. He was looking at me hopefully. I almost smiled at him. It was cute how he tried to make me feel a bit better. Maybe he's right, Annabeth-mini said. Maybe, I replied. Then I pushed the thought away. My dad caring about me? Forget it.

"He doesn't care about me," I said, keeping my voice steady. "His wife—my stepmom—treated me like a freak. She wouldn't let me play with her children. My dad went along with her. Whenever something dangerous happened—you know, something with monsters—they would both look at me resentfully, like, 'How dare you put our family at risk.' Finally, I took the hint. I wasn't wanted. I ran away." I thought of Thalia. I thought of Luke. I thought of Grover. What would've happened to me if they hadn't found me?

"How old were you?" Percy asked, breaking my train of thoughts.

"Same age as I started camp. Seven."

"But…you couldn't have gotten all the way to Half-Blood Hill by yourself."

"Not alone, no. Athena watched over me, guided me toward help. I made a couple of unexpected friends—" A family really, I thought as I spoke. But I didn't say that. "—who took care of me, for a short time, anyway."

That shut Percy up. No more questions for me. It's better this way, I thought. I don't have to relive the painful memories by telling them to Percy. Besides why did he have to know? Because he's your friend, duh! Annabeth-mini screamed at me. Or a little bit more, she added suggestively. Shut up, I told Annabeth-mini. Shut up shut up shut up, I closed my eyes and took a deep breath. Now wasn't the time to think about when I had lived with my dad. Too painful. I was too scared to face those memories and my own fears. And Annabeth-mini whispered into my ears, what a coward. I bit back tears that suddenly sprung into my eyes, breathed out through my nose, and turned my head to look out the window.

* * *

My eyes opened. I stared at the ceiling of the moving train for a while, then closed them again. I could hear Percy and Grover talking in hushed voices. Grover sighed loudly. I heard Percy tell Grover to keep it down since I was sleeping. Before I could stop myself, I smiled. Percy's small act of care for me sent a fuzzy feeling down my spine. Maybe, just maybe, I could build a new family. Families are like buildings, probably why "building a family" is a valid phrase, and you need a good, solid foundation in order for the family to not collapse. My old family, the true family with Thalia, Luke, and Grover, had been built on a strong foundation. The problem in that family had been the different stories. An earthquake had destroyed the higher floors of the building but the foundation was still there. I just needed to build it up again. And for the five years at Camp Half-Blood, I had pushed it to the back of my mind and kept it there, afraid to build something only to fall again.

"Shh, you might wake her up," Percy said again, sounding irritated.

"It's okay, I'm awake," I said, opening my eyes and looking at them. Percy's hair was as messy as ever and his usually bright green eyes were dull. Probably with boredom. Grover had his rasta cap on to hide his horns and he smiled at me.

"The zombie lives," Percy imitated, rolling his eyes.

I decided to ignore him. "What time is it?" I asked.

"Dunno. It's afternoon though," Grover said. I did the math perfectly in my head. It was June 13. Eight days before the summer solstice. We've got this mission in the bag, I thought. Speaking of bags, I looked out the window to see the biggest bag handle in the world.

"The Gateway Arch!" I squealed excitedly. I craned my neck, trying to make it longer, and looked in awe at the magnificent structure. If only I could build something like that.

"I want to do that," I sighed.

"What?" asked Percy.

"Build something like that. You ever see the Parthenon, Percy?"

"Only in pictures."

"Someday, I'm going to see it in person. I'm going to build the greatest monument to the gods, ever. Something that'll last a thousand years," I said dreamily.

Percy laughed. "You? An architect?" He said it like it was a joke.

Blood rushed to my cheeks. "Yes, an architect," I said determinedly. "Athena expects her child to create things, not just tear them down, like a certain god of earthquakes I could mention."

Percy was quiet. What I had just said reached me and I felt a pang of guilt.

"Sorry. That was mean." And I meant it.

"Can't we work together a little?" Percy pleaded. I looked into his sea green eyes. They reminded me of the ocean. Of course they did, I thought. Silly me.

"I mean, didn't Athena and Poseidon ever cooperate?" he asked.

I pursed my lips. "I guess…" I started, "the chariot. My mom invented it, but Poseidon created horses out of the crests of waves. So they had to work together to make it complete."

"Then we can cooperate, too. Right?"

I stared out the window at the Arch, watching until the last moment and it disappeared behind a hotel. Percy just outsmarted me, I thought. Outsmart? That didn't happen to me very often.

"I suppose," I said at last, a bit grudgingly but hopefully at the same time.

We pulled into the Amtrak station downtown. The intercom told us we'd have a three-hour layover before departed for Denver. My heart leapt. This was my chance to see the Gateway Arch! And maybe my only chance.

My train of thoughts was interrupted by Grover who stretched and said, "Food."

"Come on, goat boy," I said, tugging on his arm. "Sightseeing."

"Sightseeing?" Grover looked thoroughly confused.

"The Gateway Arch," I explained exasperatedly. "This may be my only chance to ride to the top. Are you coming or not?" I half expected them to say no.

Percy and Grover looked at each other, then Grover shrugged. "As long as there's a snack bar without monsters."

The Arch was about a mile from the train station. Late in the day the lines to get in weren't that long. We threaded our way through the underground museum and looking at the covered wagons and designs from the 1800s. At least, I was looking, but I wasn't too sure about Percy and Grover. They kept passing each other jelly beans and looking around at the other people.

"You smell anything?" I heard Percy ask Grover.

"Underground," Grover replied. "Underground air always smells like monsters. Probably doesn't mean anything."

But something in my gut told me that maybe, sightseeing should end, and we should leave as soon as possible.

"Guys," Percy said. "You know the gods' symbol of power?"

I was a little annoyed about being interrupted while reading about the construction equipment used to build the Gateway Arch, but I looked over. "Yeah?"

"Well, Hade—"

I was just about to tell him not to say the name in public when Grover cleared his throat loudly and beat me to it. "We're in a public place," he hissed. "You mean, our friend downstairs?"

"Um, right," said Percy, looking uncomfortable. "Our friend way downstairs. Doesn't he have a hat like Annabeth's?"

"You mean the Helm of Darkness," I replied immediately, then internally kicked myself for saying the name loudly in public. "Yeah, that's his symbol of power. I saw it next to his seat during the winter solstice council meeting."

"He was there?" Percy asked, eyes wide. He looked like a five year old.

"It's the only time he's allowed to visit Olympus—the darkest day of the year," I explained. "But his helm is a lot more powerful than my invisibility hat, if what I've heard is true…"

"It allows him to become darkness," Grover confirmed. "He can melt into shadow or pass through the walls. He can't be touched, or seen, or heard. And he can radiate fear so intense it can drive you insane or stop your heart. Why do you think all rational creatures fear the dark?"

"But then…how do we know he's not here right now, watching us?"

I looked at Grover and I knew he was thinking the same thing. Last time he was watching us. Or at least, watching Thalia, because she wasn't supposed to be alive. It was how he knew where to set his monsters to greet us.

"We don't," Grover said.

"Thanks, that makes me feel a lot better," Percy said, sarcasm heavy in his voice. I rolled my eyes.

"Got any blue jelly beans left?"

Grover handed his jelly bean bag over. We lined up to get in the elevator car to get to the top of the Arch. I barely kept my excitement down. I was going to ride to the top of the Gateway Arch! Still, that didn't stop me feeling a little worried. I had a bad feeling about the place. And like Grover said, we don't know who's watching us. Not to mention Percy's parentage.

We got shoehorned into a tiny elevator car with a big fat lady and her Chihuahua. I wondered why the guards allowed it, unless it was a seeing-eye Chihuahua. Except, if you were blind, why go up to "see" the city?

We started going up, inside the Arch, and the confined space was driving me nuts. I think it has to do with my ADHD.

"No parents?" the fate lady asked.

She had beady eyes' point, coffee-stained teeth; a floppy denim hat, and a denim dress that bulged. I didn't like the look she was giving Percy and I—it looked as if she wanted to swallow us whole.

"They're below," I told her. "Scared of heights."

"Oh, the poor darlings."

The Chihuahua growled, and I recognized the sound from obedience school. It was menacing, and ready to hunt. I felt very uneasy.

"Now, now, sonny," said the woman. "Behave."

"Sonny," said Percy. "Is that his name?"

"No," the lady replied.

At the top of the Arch, I forgot about everything. I think I kept talking about the design—at least, that's what I kept thinking about. I didn't care about the bored looks Grover and Percy were giving me. I was enjoying myself. At least, until I saw the Chihuahua. The owner was just leaning against one of the window frames, looking at us. I dragged Grover over to me and whispered in his ear, "You smell anything?"

He sniffed. "Underground."

Underground? That doesn't make sense. We're six hundred feet in the air, and certainly not underground. That's when I knew we were in trouble. Luckily, Percy seemed to be thinking the same thing. The park ranger announced that the observation deck would be closing, and Percy steered the two of us to the elevator. Grover and I got in with the two other tourists when I realized that there was no space for Percy.

"Next car, sir," said the park ranger.

"We'll get out," I said hurriedly, glancing at the fat lady. "We'll wait with you."

"Naw, it's okay. I'll see you guys at the bottom."

I glanced at Grover. He looked nervous.

"Percy, it's fine—"

One of the other tourists pressed the close button and I had to step back to avoid being crushed. The doors slide shut and we started going down.

"No!" I cried. I turned to Grover. "You do realize what's up there, don't you?"

Grover looked at me. "What?"

"You said you smelled underground. We were no where near underground up there."

Realization dawned on him. And that's when I heard the screams from far above.

* * *

 **So, I hope that chapter made up for the looonnnggg wait. I made it longer, but I think chapters will generally be around 4000 words instead of 2000 since I realized that I have an almost constant writer's block so I will try to squeeze in as much as possible when I can. -mi5hao (still sorry)**


	13. Chapter 13

**Hi, well here is chapter 13. I had a lot of fun writing this chapter. I don't know if people even read my author's notes at the beginning and end of chapters but eh whatever, I'll still write them. It's been around 2 months, making me sorry again. I'm always sorry (but I'm not Canadian) lol.**

* * *

Chapter Thirteen: Spray Gun Spirits

I used all my willpower to stop myself from panicking and screaming. We just needed to wait patiently until we could get off the elevator, I told myself as calmly as I could. Grover's eyes were the size of golf balls and he stared at me expectantly, his mouth ajar in a silent _uh-oh_.

"We just need to wait until we can—" I started to say when there was a loud roar that grew fainter as we descended. A woman screamed. The sound was very high-pitched and it hurt my ears. I looked around. The other passengers were talking amongst themselves and they didn't seem to notice something serious was going on. Well, even if i told them the situation, they still wouldn't understand why it was serious.

"Oh no, no, no, no, no," Grover muttered repeatedly under his breath. The elevator _ding!_ -ed pleasantly and I accidentally elbowed another passenger in my haste to get out of the elevator car. I pulled Grover along behind me and swore loudly as we raced outside.

"Hey, watch your language, miss twelve year old!" Grover said.

"Shut up. Look!" I pointed at a smoking hole in the side of the sightseeing floor of the Arch.

"This is not good," Grover stated.

"Thanks for pointing it out, it wasn't really obvious before you mentioned it," I fired at him before turning back. Panic bubbled inside me and I looked frantically about. Then I mentally smacked myself. What was a doing? Panicking wouldn't help. I was Annabeth, master-mind. I just need to think.

I closed my eyes, breathed deeply and willed myself to calm down. Then I opened them again and looked up at the Arch. I looked around at the people around us. They were pointing at the top of the Arch. They finally started to notice something about the Arch. About time, I thought with a roll of my eyes, when I noticed something. A river next to the Arch. The river next to the Arch. The Mississippi River next to the Arch.

"Grover!" I yelped as I looked up at the hole again.

"What?" Grover cried as he whirled around. "Did you find Percy? Is he okay?"

"No, and no," I answered, undoubtedly confusing him, "but I think we might be able to find him here."

Looking completely bewildered, Grover followed me as I started towards the river. I wondered if Percy was smart enough to jump out the hole. That was assuming he was near it. What if he wasn't near it? What if he didn't have the guts to jump? What if he didn't think of jumping? I faltered in my steps, fear that I've only experienced when we had to leave Thalia behind clutched me. Would he dare to jump, or even think of jumping?

And as if on cue, a black speck, easily seen against the clear, blue sky, appeared at the edge of the hole.

"Jump!" I screamed, making the people around me jump one foot into the air and Grover to stare at me as if I had gone crazy. The speck obeyed as if it had heard me and in a second, it started plummeting towards the water below. A plume of fire spouted out of the hole right after the speck started speeding towards the river, causing people to scream and point at the now sizzling hole.

"That's Percy!" Grover yelled, stating the obvious again, as he pointed at the speck.

"I know!" I yelled back. "Come on!"

We pushed past people, earning "hey!"s and "watch it, kid!"s, to get to the Mississippi. I thought I heard a faint "Aaaaaaggggghhhhh!" from the speck as it broke the river's surface.

"Excuse me!" shouted a police officer as he shepherded everyone into an area as two people starting pulling a yellow _Caution. Do not enter_ tape line thing across where we were standing.

"Hey!" I called. "Sorry to disrupt you, but we—" I gestured to Grover and I "—really need to be somewhere right now."

"Sorry kid, but in case you haven't realized," the police officer said, "a national monument just got blowtorched! So unless you have information, beat it!"

The sound of an ambulance grew louder. People were shouting over all the noise, only making it noisier.

I glanced back at the river where the last of the bubbles were disappearing. We had to find Percy. Grover gripped my arm as we waited with bated breath for him to appear. Time passed painfully slow, and still he didn't show up. A riverboat moved slowly past the spot where Percy had went _Fla-boom!_

More emergency vehicles arrived and police helicopters circled overhead. The crowd of people grew and it soon resembled Times Square on New Year's Eve. Percy never showed up. So this was the end? I would have to go back to Camp Half-Blood, with Grover, and report that Percy was dead and Zeus's lightning bolt in the hands of Hades. Then I would never get to go on a quest again.

Police officers surrounded the crowd, blocking the way so we couldn't get near to the Arch. That's when I heard a little girl say: "Mama! That boy walked out of the river."

I turned excitedly to Grover but he had heard the girl too.

"Percy!" he bleated. Not staying to hear the rest, Grover and I weaved through the crowd towards the police line.

A news lady was talking for the camera: "Probably not a terrorist attack, we're told, but it's still very early in the investigation. The damage, as you can see, if very serious. We're trying to get to some of the survivors, to question them about eyewitness reports of someone falling from the Arch."

Someone falling from the Arch! That must have been Percy. We squeezed through the crowd and ended up right next to the river. I caught a glimpse of someone with untidy jet black hair walk around to the other side of the crowd with his head down.

"I found him!" I cried, pointing to where he disappeared. We sprinted to the spot only to find a mass of people. We occasionally caught a glimpse or two of him but he couldn't hear us and every time we caught up with him, he was gone. The last we had spotted him was near the police line.

"An adolescent boy," a reporter was saying. "Channel Five has learned that surveillance cameras show an adolescent boy going wild on the observation deck, somehow setting off this freak explosion. Hard to believe, John, but that's…"

Grover suddenly pulled on my arm and I was half-dragged out of the crowd. There was Percy, looking around, searching with his sea green eyes. He looked hopeless.

"Perrr-cy!" Grover bleated happily. Percy turned and Grover tackled him with a bear hug—goat hug? "We thought you'd gone to Hades the hard way!"

I crossed my arms in an attempt to look angry, but I couldn't stop the relief from showing on my face. "We can't leave you alone for five minutes!" I exclaimed. "What happened?"

"I sort of fell."

"Percy! Six hundred and thirty feet?"

Behind us, a cop shouted, "Gangway!" The crowd parted, and a couple of paramedics hustled out, rolling a woman on a stretcher. I recognized her as one of tourists that were on the observation deck with us.

"And then this huge dog, this fire-breathing Chihuahua—" she said. Fire-breathing Chihuahua?

"Okay, ma'am," the paramedic said. "Just calm down. Your family is fine. The medication is starting to kick in."

"I'm not crazy!"

I doubted she was. I got the sense she was one of those gifted mortals that had the ability to see through the Mist.

"This boy jumped out of the hole and the monster disappeared," she continued. Okay, Percy, I thought. You and I are going to have to have a little chat about this. Except then the woman saw us. Or more precisely, she saw Percy.

"There he is! That's the boy!" she cried, pointing. Percy turned faster than I thought he could and pulled Grover and I with him. We disappeared into the crowd.

"What's going on?" I demanded. "Was she talking about the Chihuahua on the elevator?"

"Um, yeah, kind of," Percy replied. "The Chihuahua was actually the Chimera and the fat lady? Yeah, she was Echidna."

"Isn't that a kind of anteater?" Grover interrupted.

I elbowed him. "Let Percy finish."

"The Chihuahua—"

"Chimera," I corrected.

Grover elbowed me. "Let Percy finish."

I glared at him.

"The Chihuahua blew a hole in the Arch and I jumped out of it," Percy said.

"That's it?"

"I guess…and I landed in the Mississippi," he said. "Oh right, an underwater messenger lady told me that my dad wanted me to go to Santa Monica, and not to trust the gifts."

"Whoa," said Grover. "We've got to get you to Santa Monica! You can't ignore a summons from your dad."

I frowned. We shouldn't be rushing into conclusions, I thought. Except, before I could respond, we passed another reporter doing a news break, and Percy visibly froze in shock for a moment when the reporter said, "Percy Jackson. That's right, Dan. Channel Twelve has learned that the boy who may have caused this explosion fits the description of a young man wanted by authorities for a serious New Jersey bus accident three days ago. And the boy is believed to be traveling west. For our viewers at home, here is a photo of Percy Jackson."

I pulled Percy down with me as I ducked around the news van and slipped into an alley.

"First things first," Percy said. "We've got to get out of town!"

Somehow, we made it back to the Amtrak station without getting spotted. We got on board the train just before it pulled out for Denver. The train trundled west as darkness fell, police lights still pulsing against the St. Louis skyline behind us.

* * *

"We should eat something," Grover said suddenly.

"Yeah, we should," said Percy.

I didn't complain; I was starving as well. I got up from my seat and stretched, easing out all my stiff joints. I glanced out the window. It was very dark, with the moon as the only light source.

"We must be somewhere in Kansas," I muttered before turning to boys (well, the… goat boy and boy? Whatever). "C'mon, we better get going, the dining car should close soon."

Percy managed to finish half of his food before starting to snore. The fight with the Chimera and Echidna must have drained all of his energy. Grover prodded Percy's arm and tapped his head but no avail. I gulped down the rest of my meager sandwich before getting up and helping Grover haul Percy back to our seats. The other passengers looked at us weird, which I could understand. Three smelly kids (we hadn't taken a shower since Half-Blood Hill), one unconscious and one bleating under his breath like a goat with each heave. Yep, definitely enough to attract unnecessary attention.

"I think we should talk to Chiron," I said the moment we were all seated. "I think we should tell him about the river spirit and her warnings."

"Iris-messaging?" Grover inquired.

I nodded. "Percy should have enough drachmas left, shouldn't cost too much to use a spray gun…" I yawned and tried to cover it.

"You should get some sleep," Grover said immediately.

"Okay," I said gratefully.

"Plan for tomorrow," I heard Grover muttering to himself. "Get off train, find car wash, hopefully find a shower…"

I drifted off into a dreamless sleep. I guess I was already tired to the limit for any dreams to stress me out anymore.

* * *

The next afternoon, June 14, seven days before our deadline, the train arrived in Denver.

After we got off the train with our belongings (I had to laugh when Grover told us to check around if we had forgotten anything), I turned to Percy. "Let's try to contact Chiron," I said. "I want to tell him about your talk with the river spirit."

"We can't use phones, right?"

We don't even have one, much less use one, I thought inwardly.

"I'm not talking about phones," I replied.

We wandered through downtown for about half an hour, my eyes scanning everything, trying to find an empty do-it-yourself car wash. The air was dry and hot with the sun blazing down on the back of our necks. I half wanted to find the car wash just to spray myself with cold water.

Finally, our hard work paid off. We veered toward the farthest stall from the street, keeping our eyes open for patrol cars. Percy was a wanted fugitive and any cop with brains would figure that three adolescents hanging out at a car wash without a car were up to no good.

"What exactly are we doing?" Percy finally asked, as Grover took out the spray gun. I had been expecting him to ask that question the whole walk to the car wash, but nope.

"It's seventy-five cents," Grover grumbled, plunging his hand deep into his pockets. "I've only got two quarters left. Annabeth?"

"Don't look at me," I sighed. "The dining car wiped me out."

Percy reached into his pockets and passed Grover a quarter.

"Excellent. We could do it with a spray bottle, of course, but the connection isn't as good, and my arm gets tired of pumping," Grover said.

"What are you talking about?" Percy asked irritatedly.

"I-M'ing." Grover fed in the quarters and set the knob to FINE MIST. For a second I thought he set it to NIFE TIMS which confused me before I blinked and realized. I would kick my dyslexia if I could, but I don't know if that will make it worse or better.

"Instant messaging?" Percy frowned adorably. Wait no, I did not say that. I DID NOT. YOU DID NOT HEAR ANYTHING. YOU WILL NOT REMEMBER.

"Iris-messaging," I corrected. "The rainbow goddess Iris carries messages for the gods. If you know how to ask, and she's not too busy, she'll do the same for half-bloods."

"You summon the goddess with a spray gun?"

Grover pointed the nozzle in the air and water hissed out in a thick white mist. "Unless you know an easier way to make a rainbow."

Soon we had a rainbow before us.

"Drachma, please," I said, holding out my palm.

Percy plopped it into my hand.

I raised the coin over my head. "O goddess, accept our offering."

I threw the drachma into the rainbow, hoping. It disappeared in a golden shimmer.

"Half-Blood Hill."

For a moment, nothing happened.

Then we were looking through the mist at strawberry fields. It was as if we were on the porch of the Big House. Standing with his back to us at the railing was a sandy-haired guy in shorts and an orange tank top. He was holding a bronze sword and seemed to be staring intently at something down in the meadow.

"Luke!" Percy called.

He turned around, eyes wide. He looked slightly panicked, which confused me, before his face broke into a grin. "Percy! Is that Annabeth, too? Thank the gods! Are you guys okay?"

I don't know what happened to me, but I was suddenly a hundred times too fidgety. "We're…uh…fine," I stammered. I madly straightened out my dirty T-shirt and tried to comb the loose hair out of my face. "We thought—Chiron—I mean—"

What was wrong with me? I blushed a deep red and turned my face away, giving up.

"He's down at the cabins." Luke's smile faded. "We're having some issues with the campers. Listen, is everything cool with you? Is Grover all right?"

"I'm right here," Grover called. He held the nozzle out to one side and stepped into Luke's line of vision. "What kind of issues?"

Just then a big Lincoln Continental pulled into the car wash with its stereo to maximum hip-hop. As the car slid into the next stall, the bass from the subwoofers vibrated so much, it shook the pavement.

"Chiron had to—what's that noise?" Luke yelled.

"I'll take care of it," I yelled back, very relieved to be able to get out of sight. "Grover, come on!"

"What?" Grover said. "But—"

"Give Percy the nozzle and come on!" I ordered.

Grover muttered something about girls being harder to understand than the Oracle, then handed Percy the spray gun and followed me. I whipped out my invisibility cap and placed it on my head. Improvisation time. I rubbed my hands together and grinned evilly.

The man was trying to push quarters into the slot and the music too loud to hear anyone approaching. Grover walked around the car, reached in through the front door and suddenly stopped the music just as the man finished feeding in the coins. The man turned around in surprise and his eyes narrowed when he saw Grover.

"Hey, get away from my car!"

"Sorry," Grover apologized, "but haven't you heard? This place is haunted. Music like that will just wake up the spirits."

The man snorted. "I come here to wash my car all the time. Piss off, kid."

"It's actually haunted here! The spray guns turn on even when there is no one here." Grover put emphasis on the "spray guns turn on". I rushed over and grabbed the spray gun. Then I poked the nozzle into the back of the man.

"Ah!" He screamed, turning around. His eyes widened to the size of tennis balls at the sight of the spray gun floating in midair.

"You have woken up the spirits," I hissed. "You will pay!" I cackled the way I thought an evil witch in films out.

He screamed even louder if that was possible. I turned on the spray gun and sprayed him. The man jumped into his car, slammed the doors and the Lincoln peeled out of the car wash. I put the spray gun back before breaking into laughter.

Grover and I were still laughing when we went around the corner to our stall. I stopped when I saw Percy's face. He was never good at hiding his emotions.

"What happened, Percy? What did Luke say?" I asked anxiously.

"Not much," Percy said unconvincingly. He looked at the ground. "Come on, let's find some dinner."

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 **I think I should include more Percabeth fluff. Also, I found a file in one of my old folders. It's an AU Percabeth story. Should I put it up?**


	14. Chapter 14

**Sup. I know. I haven't updated in forever. I suck. Not to mention this is a relatively short chapter**

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Chapter 14: A Proposition From A God

I glanced around us. We were surrounded by families eating burgers and drinking malts and sodas. I could only hope that we fit in. Three kids in ripped clothes and smelling like sewage in a gleaming chrome diner? Totally not suspicious.

I looked up as the waitress came over. She looked at each of us with a slightly disgusted look, no doubt taking in how we looked and smelled. Her eyes lingered for a moment longer on Percy and something unexplainable rose up inside me. It died down just as quickly though, making me unsure if it was even there.

"Well?" the waitress asked.

"We, um, want to order dinner," Percy said, in an awfully guilty voice.

"You kids have money to pay for it?" She sounded skeptical.

No, I answered silently.

We hadn't eaten since the night before on the train and after all the trekking and everything at the car wash, I was so drained of energy to make up some lame excuse. I locked eyes with Percy and I could see that he was thinking hard, no doubt trying to invent some sob story for the waitress to soak up. Grover looked as though he would start eating the linoleum. I looked up at the waitress pathetically and was trying to use puppy eyes for the first time in my life, when a rumble shook the whole building.

All conversation in the diner stopped. A huge guy got off of a motorcycle the size of a baby elephant. The motorcycle's headlight glared red. It had flames painted on it and a shot holster riveted to either side, complete with real shotguns. The seat looked disturbingly like human skin and there was a small boar logo on one of the handles. I frowned at the logo; somehow it looked very familiar.

The guy himself would've made pro wrestlers run for mama. He was dressed in a blood red muscle shirt and black jeans and a black leather duster, with a huge hunting knife strapped to his thigh. He wore red wraparound shades. He had the cruelest, most brutal yet handsome l face I'd ever seen, with an oily black crew cut and cheeks that were scarred from many, many fights. Just looking at him made me feel strangely irritated and hateful emotions from all my bad experiences started boiling in my stomach. I shook my head to clear it. What was going on?

He opened the door and a hot, dry wind blew through the diner as he walked in. The dry air in my face made me feel suddenly very irked about everything we had to go through. All the people rose, as if they were hypnotized, but the guy waved his hand dismissively and they all sat down again.

The noise level rose again as everyone went back to their conversations. The waitress blinked before asked us again, "You kids have money to pay for it?" as though someone had just pressed the rewind button on her brain.

The biker guy said, "It's on me." He slid into our booth, which suddenly became very crowded, and pressed me against the window, making me more annoyed than ever. I opened my mouth to snap at him to move over when I suddenly recognized his face. It was Clarisse's face, and all of the other children of Ares' faces. This was their father.

Ares looked up at the waitress, who was gaping at him, and said, "Are you still here?"

He pointed at the waitress, and she stiffened. She turned as if she'd been spun around, then marched back toward the kitchen.

Ares turned to Percy. Emotions flashed across Percy's face. Anger, resentment, bitterness. I recognized every one of them. Percy looked ready to punch the table. I knew Percy must be feeling Ares' power.

Ares smiled wickedly. "So you're old Seaweed's kid, huh?"

"What's it to you?" Percy snarled at him.

I looked at him warningly. "Percy, this is—"

Ares raised his hand and immediately, I fell silent, whether I wanted to or not.

"S'okay," he said good-naturedly. "I don't mind a little attitude. Long as you remember who's the boss. You know who I am, little cousin?"

Realization seemed to dawn on Percy. "You're Clarisse's dad. Ares, god of war."

Ares grinned and took off his shades. Where his eyes should've been, there was only harsh fire, empty sockets glowing with miniature nuclear explosions. "That's right, punk. I heard you broke Clarisse's spear."

"She was asking for it."

"Probably. That's cool. I don't fight my kids' fights, you know? What I'm here for—I heard you were in town. I got a little proposition for you."

Uh-oh. Propositions from gods were never good. I was already thinking about refusing when the waitress came back with heaping trays of food—cheeseburgers, fries, onion rings, and chocolate shakes—and I forgot all about it.

I started digging in the moment the food arrived, paying no attention to what Percy and Ares were saying, even though I know I should've.

"I need you to do me a favor," I heard Ares say. Which snapped me back to attention.

"What favor could I do for a god?" Percy asked.

"Something a god doesn't have time to do himself. It's nothing much. I left my shield at an abandoned water park here in town. I was going on a little…date with my girlfriend. We were interrupted. I left my shield behind. I want you to fetch it for me."

I frowned. Something was off, and Ares had sounded for a moment as though whatever interrupted their date had scared him.

"Why don't you go back and get it yourself?" Percy asked daringly.

"Why don't I turn you into a prairie dog and run you over with my Harley? Because I don't feel like it. A god is giving you an opportunity to prove yourself, Percy Jackson. Will you prove yourself a coward?" He leaned forward. "Or maybe you only fight when there's a river to dive into, so your daddy can protect you."

Anger flooded into me and I wanted to defend Percy but he handled Ares' bait/insult just fine.

"We're not interested," he said. "We've already got a quest."

"I know all about your quest, punk," Ares said. He muttered some other irrelevant things about it before claiming that he was the one who told Poseidon about Hades.

"You told him Hades stole the bolt?"

"Sure. Framing somebody to start a war. Oldest trick in the book. I recognized it immediately. In a way, you got me to thank for your little quest."

I frowned again. Even though I knew Ares was the god of war, framing somebody to start a war, especially between the three eldest gods, was not something he would do. It would destroy the world, and Ares should have realized that. Of course, Ares could really believe that Hades stole the bolt and was only voicing it to Poseidon…

"Thanks," Percy grumbled, looking not at all thankful.

"Hey, I'm a generous guy. Just do my little job, and I'll help you on your way. I'll arrange a ride west for you and your friends."

"We're doing fine on our own."

I rolled my eyes so hard I thought I might of seen my brain. Of course we were not fine. No money, no method of transportation, no idea about what we're going to face next.

Ares said exactly what I thought. "Help me out," he offered, "and maybe I'll tell you something you need to know. Something about your mom."

"My mom?" Percy questioned, suddenly alert.

"Percy, don't, he's just baiting you—" I stopped suddenly when I realized no sound was coming out of my mouth. I glared pointedly at Ares, who just grinned.

"That got your attention," he remarked. "The water park is a mile west on Delancy. You can't miss it. Look for the Tunnel of Love ride."

"What interrupted your date?" Percy asked. "Something scared you off."

Ares just sneered. "You're lucky you met me, punk, and not one of the other Olympians. THey're not as forgiving of rudeness as I am. I'll meet you back here when you're done. Don't disappoint me."

The world suddenly did a 180 and I must have fallen into a trance or something, because when I opened my eyes again, Ares was gone. I looked at Grover and Percy, both whose expressions were grim.

"Not good," Grover said. "Ares sought you out, Percy. This is not good."

Percy stared out of the window and I followed his gaze to see that the motorcycle had disappeared. Now that Ares was gone, all the anger drained out of me and I realized, with slight horror, that his power had been causing so many resentful emotions in me that they clouded my ability to think straight. Without him around, I could see so clearly that it wasn't a great idea to ignore his proposition.

As much as I hated Ares, I couldn't deny what Grover said. Boring as the request sounded, we still couldn't ignore the gods.

"It's probably some kind of trick," Percy said. "Forget Ares. Let's just go."

"We can't," I said sadly. "Look, I hate Ares as much as anybody, but you don't ignore the gods unless you want serious bad fortune. He wasn't kidding about turning you into a rodent."

"Why does he need us?" Percy asked, seeming desperate for a way out of the situation.

"Maybe it's a problem that requires brains," I said. "Ares has strength. That's all he has. Even strength has to bow to wisdom sometimes."

"But this water park…he acted almost scared. What would make a war god run away like that?"

I glanced nervously at Grover and we shared a look. I knew he was thinking along the same lines as me.

"I'm afraid we'll have to find out," I said ominously

* * *

It was almost night when we found the water park, which judging from it's appearance, had been abandoned for quite a while. The main gate was padlocked and topped with barbed wire. Inside, huge dry waterslides and tubes and rusty pipes curled everywhere, leading to empty pools. Old tickets and advertisements fluttered around the asphalt. I glanced at the partly smashed sigh, which read WAT R A D. I assumed it the place had once been called WATERLAND.

"If Ares brings his girlfriend here for a date," Percy said, staring up at the barbed wire, "I'd hate to see what she looks like."

"Percy," I warned, hoping the Olympians couldn't hear us. "Be more respectful."

"Why? I thought you hated Ares."

"He's still a god," I said exasperatedly. "And his girlfriend is very temperamental."

"You don't want to insult her looks," Grover added helpfully.

"Who is she? Echidna?" I didn't know if Percy was trying to get us vaporized.

"No, Aphrodite," Grover said, his expression suddenly dreamy. "Goddess of love."

"I thought she was married to somebody," Percy said. "Hephaestus."

"What's your point?" Grover asked, slightly defensively.

"Oh." Percy said abruptly. "So how do we get in?"

"Maia!" Grover shouted. His shoes sprouted wings and lifted him into the air.

He flew over the fence, did a somersault in midair which I'm pretty was unintended, then stumbled to a landing on the other side. He dusted off his jeans proudly, like he'd planned the whole thing.

"You guys coming?" he asked.

"Easy for you to say that," I heard Percy mutter under his breath. I glanced at the fence and gestured to Percy. We climbed the old-fashions way, holding down the barbed wire for each other as we crawled over the top.

The sun went down as we walked though the park. I looked around curiously at all the attractions. There was Ankle Biter Island, Head Over Wedgie, and Dude, Where's My Swimsuit. I kept my knife in my hand the whole time, sure that something was going to jump out at us.

Nothing happened. No monsters came to get us.

I walked ahead to look for souvenir shops or places to get supplies. Sure enough, I spotted a souvenir shop sitting behind a clump of fake palm trees. It had been thankfully left open.

"Hey guys. Come check this out," I said.

Together, we walked into the shop. Merchandise still lined the shelves. There were postcards, snow globes, refrigerator magnets, and racks of beach shorts and T-shirts.

"Clothes!" I said gleefully. "Fresh clothes."

"Yeah," Percy said. "But you can't just—"

Take it? I finished in my head. Ha.

"Watch me," I said with a small smirk.

I pranced over to the racks and snatched a few T-shirts with matching shorts and shoes, then walked into the changing room. It was way too dark to see and I fumbled around for the light switch. My hand touched a plastic switch and I flipped it on before shutting the door.

Someone had obviously tried a lot of clothes and even left a Waterland backpack lying on the ground. It was full of Waterland souvenirs. I chucked out most of the junk, leaving a new, still sealed in plastic wrapper, Waterland water bottle, a Waterland flashlight with extra batteries and two bags of unopened chips. I folded three sets of fresh Waterland clothes and stuffed them into the backpack before changing into a set myself.

I glanced at my old clothes. They were covered in grime and dirt. Whatever, I shrugged. I decided to ditch them, packing only my dirty sneakers in a clean plastic bag and stuffing that into the pack.

I grinned as I exited the changing room, feeling amazing. I glanced around at the abandoned shop.

"What the heck." I shrugged. I ran around the shelves, looting whatever goodies I thought would be useful (mainly tomato-flavored chips).

Grover and Percy just stared at me. Then they glanced at each other. Grover shrugged. Soon, all three of us were decked out like walking advertisements for the defunct theme park.

"Okay. Ready to find the Tunnel of Love?" Grover asked.

"Sure. Can't be that bad can it? I mean, it's just a roller coaster," I said.

If only I knew how wrong I was.

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 **I would say that I will update sooner. But I probably won't and so I won't make empty promises this time. Anyhow, I hope you enjoyed!**


	15. Chapter 15

**Hi guys. I'm back with another chapter! Yay. I finally, finally, got to this part. I toned the Annabeth-likes-Percy thing up a notch, as requested. Enjoy.**

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Chapter 15: The Thrill O'Ride of Love

The sun was going down, it's final rays of the day creating golden lines against the red sky. A warm breeze drifted through the park, and I got the feeling that it was holding its breath, as if waiting for something that would surely happen.

I walked alongside Percy and Grover. Our shadows were long and dark against the bright red horizon as we continued searching for the Tunnel of Love.

"So, uh, Ares and Aphrodite," Percy said in an obvious attempt to start a conversation. "They have a thing going?"

I was thankful for the distraction from the growing dark. "That's old gossip, Percy," I told him patiently. "Three-thousand-year-old gossip."

"What about Aphrodite's husband?"

"Well, you know," I said. "Hephaestus. The blacksmith." My mind flashed back to when I had seen him on Mount Olympus. His face had been grotesquely contorted and his body was lopsided, with one shoulder lower than the other. I had found it hard to look at him, and that was when he had tidied up. I tried not to think about what he would look like by himself in the forges.

"He was crippled when he was a baby, thrown off Mount Olympus by Zeus," I explained. "So isn't exactly handsome. Clever with his hands, and all, but Aphrodite isn't into brains and talent, you know?"

It was one of those things that I could emphasize with. Back when I was six-years-old, an immature and oblivious little girl, I had crushed on a boy with dark hair that looked very much like Percy's. Stupid as I was, I had told him that I liked him. In return, people made fun of how a nerd like me liked a popular and cool boy like him.

"She likes bikers," Percy said stupidly.

"Whatever." I kicked a rock and stared at the ground.

"Hephaestus knows?" Percy sounded incredulous.

"Oh sure," I replied. "He caught them together once. I mean, literally caught them, in a golden net, and invited all the gods to come and laugh at them. Hephaestus is always trying to embarrass them. That's why they meet in out-of-the-way places, like…"

I trailed off as I looked up to see an empty pool. It looked like something people would skateboard in, since it was at least fifty yards across and shaped like a bowl. Around the rim, a dozen bronze statues of Cupid stood guard with wings spread and bows ready to fire. On the opposite side from us, a tunnel opened up, probably where the water flowed into when the pool was full. I glanced up at the sign above it. It read, THRILL RIDE O'LOVE: THIS IS NOW YOUR PARENTS' TUNNEL OF LOVE!

"Like that," I finished, stopping in my tracks at the abandoned pool.

Grover glanced at the two of us first, before creeping over to the edge of the pool. "Guys, look," he said.

Uh, oh, I thought. Together, Percy and I approached the edge.

Marooned at the bottom of the pool was a pink and white two-seater boat with a canopy over the top and cheesy little hearts painted all over it. In the left seat, glinting in the fading light, was Ares's shield, a polished circle of bronze.

"This is too easy," Percy said. "So we just walk down there and get it?"

"No," I murmured under my breath. "There must be some sort of trap."

I turned to the nearest Cupid statue, studying it. A small carving along the base of the statue caught my eye and I ran my fingers over it.

Eta.

"There's a Greek letter carved here," I told Grover and Percy. "Eta. I wonder…"

"Grover," Percy said, "you smell any monsters?"

He sniffed the wind. "Nothing."

Percy looked slightly skeptical. His sea green eyes quickly flitted over to meet mine before focusing his attention on Grover again. "Nothing—like, in-the-Arch-and-you-didn't-smell-Echidna nothing, or really nothing?"

Grover looked hurt. He pulled on his cap nervously. "I told you, that was underground."

"Okay, I'm sorry." Percy took a deep breath and looked at the bronze shield again, which shone in a strangely bright way despite the darkness. "I'm going down there."

"I'll go with you," Grover offered, though he didn't sound too enthusiastic. I got the feeling that he was trying to make up for what had happened in St. Louis.

"No," Percy told him. "I want you to stay up top with the flying shoes."

Good point, I thought. Seaweed Brain actually seemed to have some brains.

"I'll be counting on you for backup, in case something goes wrong," Percy said.

Grover puffed up his chest a little, which made me smile behind my hand. "Sure. But what could go wrong?"

Eta, Annabeth-mini reminded me. I know, I replied. Definitely should be worried about it, but…

"I don't know. Just a feeling," Percy told Grover. He turned to me. "Annabeth, come with me—"

It was as though my stomach had been dropped from the sky like I was on a roller coaster. My heart missed a beat for reasons I couldn't understand, and my stomach proceeded to do a few more somersaults. My feet tingled and I felt the heat rise up to my cheeks faster than the speed of light.

"Are you kidding?" I exclaimed, staring at Percy as though he'd just dropped from the moon.

"What's the problem now?" he demanded, looking annoyed.

"Me, go with you to the…the 'Thrill Ride of Love'?" I was hyperventilating. I was definitely hyperventilating. It wasn't such a big deal, but now that I said it, it became a huge deal.

"How embarrassing is that?" I asked. "What if somebody saw me?" Strangely, I felt like I was a normal mortal girl in school, denying desperately that I didn't like him. What? No one had said anything that. But as the thoughts passed through my mind, my eyes were drawn against my will to where Percy was standing. I saw him—his face, his hair, and his eyes—as though I was seeing him for the first time again.

It was like my wits had left me in a panic to refuse to do go down there with Percy. I knew there was no way anyone other than Grover that could see me. We were in an abandoned theme park, for gods' sake.

"Who's going to see you?" But Percy's face was also bright red now. He glared at me, as if accusing me of making everything complicated. I held my ground and stared back at him. My eyes made contact with his beautiful green ones, and my body tingled.

"Fine," Percy said, looking away from me, breaking the connection. "I'll do it myself."

He turned and started down the side of the pool. I found myself longing to see those eyes again as I followed him down the side of the pool. Did he really think I was going to let him retrieve the shield by himself? It could be dangerous, for all we knew.

I looked at Percy's back the whole way, muttering under my breath, ranting to myself about how boys were stupid and always messed things up.

We reached the boat. I glanced around instinctively, my demigod defense gears turning. I noticed something I hadn't seen from up top: mirrors all the way around the rim of the pool, facing the spot. I could see myself no matter which direction I looked. Grimy and stringy strands of disgusting yellowish blonde hair, weary gray eyes, complete with cuts and scratches on my face.

Looking perfect, Annabeth. Just perfect.

Percy picked up the scarf. It shimmered a beautiful yet indescribable light blue, and I caught a waft of the perfume on the wind. Just the scent itself made me dreamy, my eyes slightly unfocused as I tried to figure out what it smelled like. It was rose for a second, but a second later I was sure it smelled like that Eau Des Merveilles perfume by the brand _Hermès_ that my step-mother used all the time. She used to always complain to my father about how she couldn't go on a vacation to the beach, so she wanted to smell like the ocean. Stupid reason to waste money on expensive perfume in my opinion.

Percy looked at me and smiled in a slightly drunk way. He brought the scarf closer to his face, all the while smiling at me in that dreamy yet fake way. I glanced from him to the scarf, watching confusedly as he brought it closer to his cheek.

Suddenly realizing what he was going to do, I lunged forward and ripped it out of his hands, stuffing it in my pocket, saying, "Oh, no you don't. Stay away from the love magic."

It was as if he had woken up from a trance. Percy jumped a little, his sea green eyes slightly startled. "What?"

"Just get the shield, Seaweed Brain, and let's get out of here."

"Right."

As Percy reached into the boat to grab the shield, a small carving on the side of the boat caught my eye. I bent down curiously.

Eta.

I traced my finger over the etched Greek letter.

Eta is H, I thought suddenly.

An eta here and an eta on the statue all the way at the top of the pool…I cursed quietly, just as Percy paused as he touched the shield for whatever reason.

"Wait," I warned.

"Too late."

I saw it now. An almost invisible net-like trip wire that Percy's hand had broken.

"There's another Greek letter on the side of the boat, another Eta. This is a trap," I said, my voice getting higher.

Noise erupted all around us, of a million gears grinding, as if the whole pool had come to life.

"Guys!" Grover yelled.

Up on the rim, the Cupid statues were drawing their bows into firing position. No! I thought. This was a trap meant for gods. The arrows wouldn't permanently damage a god, so it would be fine. But there was a problem.

We weren't gods.

Ares had set us up. He knew there was a trap. Actually, he probably was the one that set it up.

The Cupid statues shot, but not as us. They fired at each other, across the rim of the pool. Silky cables trailed from the arrows, arcing over the pool in a beautiful shower of gold and anchoring where they landed to form a huge golden asterisk. Then smaller metallic threads starting weaving together magically between the main strands, making a net.

Despite the panic and feeling of betrayal, I couldn't help admiring the handiwork. I frowned, feeling like something was off. Ares couldn't have created such a fine and delicate trap. I had always thought that Ares's kind of trap would be something like: walk into target area, something comes out and busts some heads. But I guess he could always use magic.

Percy grabbed my arm, sending electric shocks up my body, and said, "We have to get out."

As if I didn't already figure that out. "Duh!" I rolled my eyes.

Percy snatched the shield and we ran, but going up the slope of the pool was much harder than going down.

"Come on!" Grover shouted.

He was trying to hold open a section of the net for us, but wherever he touched, the golden threads started to wrap around his hands.

The Cupids' heads popped open, almost scaring the life out of me. Video cameras rose up out of them. Spotlights rose up all around the pool, blinding us with illumination, and a loudspeaker voice boomed: "Live to Olympus in one minute…fifty-nine seconds, fifty-eight…"

That voice. I knew that voice. I had heard it during my trip to Olympus in the winder solstice. Then, it clicked.

H.

"Hephaestus!" I screamed. "I'm so stupid! Eta is H. He made this trap to catch his wife with Ares. Now we're going to be broadcast live to Olympus and look like absolute fools."

Now that I think about it, that really wasn't the biggest problem that I should have been worrying about.

We'd almost made it to the rim with the row of mirrors opened like hatches and tiny metallic…things poured out.

Eight tiny cameras for eyes.

Sharp metallic pincers.

And eight scuttling, spindly legs.

I screamed like I had never screamed before. "Spiders! Sp—sp—aaaah!"

My whole body froze up. My blood turned ice cold, and I couldn't move a muscle. My heart was jumping out of my chest and my brain was screaming at me. I wished I could just shut down my body and lose conscious, just to escape this horrifying reality.

The army of creepy-crawlies came towards me, and I fell backward in terror.

Right into more of them. They scuttled right onto my body, snapping their pincers and crawling all over my legs.

Then pain. They were taking tiny chunks right out my legs.

I was sure my throat had been ripped from all the screaming that I did. I was just aware of Percy, yelling something at me, but my world on was mute.

"Come on!" Percy's voice broke through to me as he hauled me into the boat.

I could vaguely hear Percy yelling, then even more yelling, Grover's voice, the loudspeaker, when suddenly—

BOOM!

Water exploded out of nowhere. It roared into the pool, sweeping away the spiders. It jerked me back into reality as Percy reached over and fastened my seat belt for me. The tidal wave slammed into our boat. I was sure it would break, but Percy's power must have been keeping it together as we were lifted up on a large wave. The water went over the top of our heads on impact and fell right into our boat, dousing us completely, but also whisking away the spiders.

We spun in circles around the whirlpool, in water full of short-circuiting spiders.

Spotlights glared down at us. The Cupid-cams were rolling, live to Olympus, and the only thing I could think of was how utterly stupid we must have looked.

That soon changed as the boat's nose turned towards the tunnel, and then we were rocketing through into the darkness.

Percy and I held tight, both of us screaming as the boat shot curls and hugged corners and took forty-five degree plunges past cheesy pictures of Romeo and Juliet.

Then we were out of the tunnel, the night air whistling through out hair as the boat barreled straight towards the exit at thirty miles per hour.

If the ride had been in working order, we would've sailed off a ramp between the golden Gates of Love and splashed down safely in the exit pool. But there was a problem. The Gates of Love were chained. Two boats that had been washed out of the tunnel before us were now piled against the barricade—one submerged, the other cracked in half.

"Unfasten your seat belt," Percy yelled to me.

"Are you crazy?" I screamed back.

"Unless you want to get smashed to death."

…Good point.

"We're going to have to jump for it," Percy said.

As soon as he said it, I understood. His idea was that as the boat struck, we would use it's force like a springboard to jump the gate.

I nodded, gripping his hand as the gates raced towards us.

"On my mark," Percy said.

"No! On my mark!" No offense, Seaweed Brain, but a child of Athena would probably calculate everything in a much more accurate matter.

"What?"

"Simple physics!" I yelled, releasing my inner nerd. "Force times the trajectory angle—"

"Fine," Percy shouted back. "On your mark!"

I hesitated, watching the gates come closer…hesitated more…then yelled, "Now!"

Crack! The boat smashed into pieces while we were thrown into the air, straight over the gates, unfortunately straight over the pool, and down toward solid asphalt.

Something grabbed my arm in a very painful angle.

"Ouch!" I shouted.

Grover!

He had grabbed me by the arm, Percy by the shirt, and was trying to pull us out of a crash landing, but Percy and I had all the momentum.

"You're too heavy! We're going down!"

We spiraled toward the ground, Grover doing his best to slow the fall. We smashed into the photo-board, Grover's head going straight into the hole where tourists would put their faces, pretending to be Noo-Noo the Friendly Whale. Percy and I tumbled to the ground, banged up but alive.

I groaned, pushing myself off the ground. I panted heavily, trying to catch my breath. Then I noticed Grover and together with Percy, we got him out of the photo-board and thanked hi for saving our lives.

Then I noticed something else. A hundred yards away, at the entrance pool, the Cupids were still filming. The statues had swiveled around so that their camera were trained straight on us, the spotlights in our faces.

"Show's over!" Percy yelled. "Thank you! Good night!"

The Cupids turned back to their original positions. The lights shut off, leaving us alone in the dark night. The park was quiet again, except for the gentle trickle of water into the Thrill Ride of Love's ext pool. For a second, I wondered if Olympus had gone to a commercial break, or if our rating were any good.

Then I focused on the serious stuff. Ares. We needed to have a little talk with him.


End file.
